"Praying For Leaders"

“Praying for Leaders”

Robert M. Thompson, Pastor

Corinth Reformed Church
150 Sixteenth Avenue NW
Hickory, North Carolina 28601

828.328.6196   corinthtoday.org

 (© 2010 by Robert M. Thompson.  Unless otherwise indicated, Scriptures quoted are from The Holy Bible, New International Version, Copyright 2010 by New York International Bible Society.)

Pray that the failures of your leaders will turn them into compassionate helpers.

Who changed?  (Pastor Paul Cummings)

A few years ago we bought a house.  The best part was that the walls were freshly painted and clean.  Then time began to take its toll with kids writing on the walls, eating chocolate pudding, playing with mud.

Now there are hand prints everywhere.  In the kitchen floor there are “places” where the dog peed.  I turned to Danielle and said, “We have to figure out what paint that was and repaint.”

“No,” she said, “I will get out the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.”  That stuff is amazing.  If we had had that years ago, the Valdese oil spill would have been cleaned right up.

We went after everything with that little sponge.  Magic Eraser truly is miraculous.  The stains were gone.  The house looked like Cinderella had been there.

Now the smudges are back though.  I still have the Magic Eraser, but I don’t feel like using it.  There’s football on.  I want to play with the kids.

Prayer is like that.  We pray and God answers.  We apply prayer strategically.  But when we get older, even though prayer is still available, we don’t do it. 

God hasn’t changed.  Prayer hasn’t changed, but we don’t do it.

What if we prayed as if God was in charge of everything?  In Luke 22, Jesus says, “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to have you to sift you.  But I have prayed for you.”

This confronts the shallowness of our faith.  I tend to forget that God is in charge of Satan.  We tend to think that hurricanes and earthquakes mean he’s not in charge.

President Obama was elected.  God was in charge.  There was another election and Republicans took the House.  God was in charge.  God is in charge in Egypt right now.

In Luke 22, Jesus prays strategically.  He prays like God is in charge.

Invisible battles (Pastor Bob Thompson)

I’ve been reading Philip Yancey’s book on prayer, and I’ll say again: especially if you struggle with whether prayer makes a difference, sell your car if you have to, to buy this book.  Yancey titles one chapter, “Why Pray?”  His best answer:  “Because Jesus did.”  In that chapter, Jesus does what we’re doing at Corinth – he looks at the dozen or so prayers Jesus prayed in the Gospels.  Jesus’ prayer for Peter is one of them.

Jesus is our model.  He is God, yes, but he is God with skin on – skin like ours.  He shares our full humanity – including the need to pray.  Before he was a zygote in the womb of the Virgin Mary, he was eternally one with the Father, sharing an intimacy that was effortless and complete.  When he became a man, in order to communicate with his Father, he had to pray – like we do.  Even now, the only glimpse the Bible gives us of what Jesus is doing is that he’s interceding for us (Hebrews 7:25; 1 John 2:1).

In Luke 22, Jesus precedes his prayer with a context.  Almost every Christian knows this story, the one that leads to a three-fold denial that Peter even knows Jesus.  All four gospels tell the sobering tale.  All four gospels also relate that Jesus predicted Peter’s denial.  Luke’s version, however, is unique.  He adds details Matthew, Mark, and John omit. Only Luke tells us that Jesus prayed for Peter in advance of the denials.

Let’s look first at how Jesus sets up the prayer.  The second person pronoun in verse 31 is plural, even though it doesn’t show up that way in the NIV pew Bible, except in the footnote.  Jesus looks right at Peter and says his birth name twice (like your Mom used to do when she really wanted your attention):  “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift y’all as wheat.”

Jesus knew that these men, especially Peter but not only Peter, would be leaders.  Leaders need your prayers.  President Obama needs your prayers.  Governor Perdue needs your prayers.  President Mubarak of Egypt needs your prayers.  Your pastors need your prayers.  Your teacher (or your child’s teacher) needs your prayers.  Elders and deacons need your prayers. 

When you’re a leader, the opportunities are greater, but the pressures are greater.  The temptations are greater.  Not all the challenges your leaders face are visible.  Jesus reminds us that some of those challenges aren’t visible to any human being.    Paul makes the same case in Ephesians 6, especially verse 12.

Spiritual war is raging behind the scenes.  I don’t talk it about it much because the Bible doesn’t talk it about it much.  It’s not on every page.  We’re not to obsess over it, because the one in us is greater than the one in the world (1 John 4:4).  Neither are we to be naïve (2 Corinthians 2:11).

“Satan has asked to sift y’all as wheat,” Jesus says.  The eleven disciples (Judas had probably left by now) surely thought of the scene in the book of Job where Satan asks permission to take away all of Job’s children, his possessions, even his health.  I don’t pretend to understand all that goes on behind the scenes – I’m not even sure I want to.  I just know the spiritual struggle is real for leaders, and all of us charged with teaching, modeling, shepherding, helping need to be aware that our archenemy, the accuser, wants to bring us down.

Peter v. Judas (Pastor Bob Thompson)

In verse 32, we get the content of Jesus’ prayer.  The second person pronouns in this verse are all singular.  Jesus now centers his attention exclusively on Peter.

“I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail.  And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”  Yancey says you should picture a courtroom scene.  Satan, the Accuser, demands to separate the disciples from Jesus like chaff from wheat.  Jesus, the Defender, pleads for Peter to survive.

Here’s where we learn from Jesus not only that we should pray for leaders, but how to pray for them.  Jesus knew these men would emerge prominently in his church. 

“I have prayed you for that you faith may not fail.”  Did Peter’s faith fail?  Was Jesus’ prayer unanswered when Peter denied him, not once but three times? 

Our prayers tend to be short-sighted and narrow.  “God, help me get through this test.”  “Father, heal my loved one.”  “Lord, help me pay this bill.”  “May our leaders make this decision well.”  In Jesus’ situation, we would have prayed, “Father, help Peter to be strong and not deny me.”  Jesus instead opens wide the lens of his prayer to see the bigger picture.  He prays for Peter strategically. 

Peter will deny Jesus – Jesus himself says so in verse 34. What Jesus prays is that his faith will endure on the other side of his failure.  Jesus is nowhere near as concerned about a misstep along the way as he is about getting to the destination.  Jesus was praying for Peter’s life not to end up like Judas – his crises caused a total collapse of faith and led to suicide.  Even Judas was redeemable – but his faith failed

After the failure, what Jesus wants is a humble disciple who can in turn strengthen his brothers.  Every one of us will fail.  Every leader will deny Christ in some way by what we do or how we live. 

Pray that the failures of your leaders will only turn them into compassionate helpers.  Pray that they will become like Peter, a Rock that will bring glory to Christ because his grace never fails, a humble undershepherd who declares the power of redemptive suffering (1 Peter 5:1-11).

I wonder if the difference between Peter and Judas was not only that Jesus prayed for Peter specifically, but that he told Peter, “I have prayed for you, that your faith will not fail.”  Did those words ring in Peter’s ears after the denials to keep him going and turn him into a leader?

When you pray for your leaders, tell them so.

Praying from the Finish Life (Pastor Paul Cummings)

What does that look like for the believer?  In cross country running, there is a different mindset at the end than at the beginning or the middle.  At the beginning of the race, the adrenaline is high, but the end is a long way off.  A letdown is common during the middle of the race.  As a runner, you wonder if you are going to make it.

Christ is praying from the finish line.  He knows the letdown is going to come.  But he says, “I’m praying from the end of the race.” 

To use a different analogy, the skirmishes may continue, but the war has been won.

One of the tools Satan uses is the tool of fear.  Our world is rampant with fear right now.  There are people telling you why you should be afraid.  In local and international affairs, people encourage fear.

But when you pray in fear, your prayers are from the starting line.  Jesus says, “Don’t fear those who can only kill your body.  Fear God – he deals with the soul, and he can throw soul and body into hell.”

When we pray like Jesus, we’re saying, “God, by your power help me stand with you at the finish line.  Strengthen me that after my time of failure I will finish well.” 

That’s what it means to pray strategically.