In Mike Davenport's sermon titled 'Where Are the Mighty Men of Prayer?', the focus is on the importance of public prayer as outlined in 1 Timothy 2:8. Davenport emphasizes that this scripture addresses men within the church, urging them to pray boldly and continuously. The sermon draws on Charles Spurgeon's analogy of prayer as a rope that rings a bell in heaven, questioning whether one's public prayer is impactful. Davenport examines the biblical context, noting that Paul's desire for men to pray everywhere is not a mere suggestion but a command reflecting spiritual authority. He explores various obstacles men might face in engaging in public prayer, such as self-reliance, unconfessed sin, coldness of heart, laziness in spiritual disciplines, and feelings of unworthiness. The speaker encourages men to overcome these barriers, highlighting the corporate benefit of prayer and urging men to become leaders in prayer within the church. Davenport concludes by challenging men to examine their participation in public prayer as an indication of their reliance on God and readiness to receive divine blessings.

Well, if you would, take out your Bibles if you have them. Turn to 1 Timothy 2, 8. 2, 8. First Timothy 2, 8, just like this morning, it's a letter of Paul read into a son in the faith, Timothy, and he writes here in 1 Timothy 2, 8, I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting." The Prince of Preachers, Charles Spurgeon, wrote, quote, prayer pulls the rope below and the great bell rings above in the ears of God. Some scarcely stir the bell, for they pray so languidly.

Some give but an occasional pluck of the rope. But He who wins with heaven is the man who grasps the rope boldly and pulls continuously with all his might." End quote. Well using that analogy, my question for you is this, in regard specifically to public prayer, is there any sound coming from your bell? God has given us each a rope with which to fill heaven with the ringing of our supplications. Is the activity of your public prayer likely to win heaven?

Can your activity be described as bold, as continuous, as an evidence of all your might? The title of the message this afternoon is, Where Are the Mighty Men of Prayer? Where are the mighty men of prayer? And the first thing I want to do is establish the fact that verse 8 is dealing with public prayer. It's dealing with public prayer.

Prayer in the gathered church of Jesus Christ and not private prayer. Note first the verse that precedes this one, verse 7. Paul is describing himself. He says, this gospel of Christ the Mediator, for this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle. I am speaking the truth in Christ and not lying.

A teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. Paul is writing his son Timothy, his son in the faith, and he's declaring his calling as a preacher, as a teacher, and as an apostle. Do you see it there? So when he comes to Verse 8, Paul sees himself and writes as one with authority in the church of Christ. In verses 11 and 12, Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit declares the place of the woman to be a place of learning and submission.

She is not to teach, she is to learn in silence. A church setting is in view. Then when we come to chapter 3, you're well familiar with chapter 3, when we come to this chapter Paul sets before us in the first 13 verses the two offices in the church, elders and deacons, and he sets before Timothy the qualifications that are required for men who would aspire to either of those offices, offices in the church of Christ. He's given instruction. And if you're still not convinced, then note what Paul writes in verse 15 of chapter 3.

He says, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself. Where? In the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. And so, if nothing else, Paul says, hey, the reason I'm writing to you is so you know from everything I've told you how to conduct yourself in the church of God. So that's the first thing.

The context here is public prayer. It's prayer considered in the house of God. Note secondly what it is that Paul desires. I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere. Now we should not attribute to Paul's desire some passing emotional wish.

He's not simply saying, wouldn't it be nice if... Remember he's just established his calling as a preacher, teacher, and an apostle. Patrick Fairbairn in his commentary on these three epistles, 1st, 2nd Timothy, and Titus, notes the following, quote, in the verb bulimai, the active wish is expressed as of one who having a right to speak in the name of Christ should in expressing a wish be regarded as virtually uttering a command." We as parents kind of understand that, right? There are times where, especially as our children are getting older, where we simply desire to express our desires, our wishes, and our desire is for our children to take that and to put wheels to it and to obey. We're speaking out of authority, just they know what pleases us, hopefully by that time, and our wish becomes something that they want to obey.

Same thing. Now, the main emphasis of Paul's desire is the prayer, and we see that in the ordering of the words in the original language. A more literal translation of the verse that would also keep it readable in our modern-day tongue, it would be this, I desire then that prayer, see it's at the very front, I desire then that prayer be made in every place by the men, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting. The place in the importance of prayer in the house of God is the prominent thing that Paul is stressing, and this should not surprise us. Isaiah declares the mind of God back in Isaiah 56 verse 7, even them I will bring, talking to the Gentiles, those who were outcast at that time, even them I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer.

Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar, for my house shall be called what? A house of prayer for all nations." Even after the birth of the New Testament church, what do we read of the activity of the church there in Acts chapter 2? They continued steadfastly in one thing, prayers. They continued steadfastly in prayers. Praying is what the Church of Christ does.

Another focus in this passage is the word everywhere. Everywhere. Now Paul's desire is that there would be prayer everywhere. Now on the surface it would seem that Paul wants prayer happening everywhere we go. You go here you pray, you go there you pray.

It would seem like that's what he's referring to. However, I believe the idea here is the universal applicability of prayer, that wherever the church of Jesus Christ gathers, that place will be a place of prayer. And so, in that sense, everywhere, he's recognizing the local church. He's recognizing the local church. Now, the last point that I want to draw your attention to is who Paul has at the heart of this desire.

It's the men. It's the men. So though the main emphasis is prayer, Paul also draws attention to the men of the church. And though he has more to say about the praying here in this verse, the character of the man praying, I want us to spend the rest of our time talking about this desire of the Spirit of God that the men here in this place would pray, that the men here in this church would be praying men, that our public meetings would be filled up with the prayers of the men. As your pastor, I have a duty to you men.

I have a duty. In one sense, this isn't easy to preach. It's not. But I have a duty. And in Paul's second letter to Timothy, he communicates the duty to Timothy, I charge you.

I charge you. Therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead and His appearing and His kingdom, preach the Word, be ready in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, Exhort with all longsuffering and teaching. But as a pastor, I also have a promise. I have a promise. It's this, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable.

It's profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work." And we heard about that this morning, didn't we? We heard about the good works that God has set before us. This is a good work that God has set before us. And I want you to think about back to the message this morning about what our brother Trent brought in terms of the profitability of our good works to others. My dear friend, this profitability of men praying in public meetings, it profits the rest of us.

It profits us. And so I come to you with this passage, I desire therefore that the men pray. I desire therefore that the men pray. It may come to you as exhortation, it may come to you as a rebuke, it may come to you as correction, or it may simply be an encouragement in righteous instruction, but it's given with this well-anchored hope that it will indeed prove profitable, that you dear men of God will be complete, thoroughly equipped for the good work of prayer. So what I would like to do is to consider reasons, let's consider reasons why we as men either don't pray, and again remember the context I'm talking about public prayer, why we either don't pray or don't pray often or maybe struggle with praying in the corporate meetings of the church.

Now before I do that, there are several things I want you to understand and be convinced of, okay? First of all, I have no particular person or persons in mind. Although I consider us as a church not to be in the best state, Think back even to this morning in our prayer time this morning. I don't consider us to be in the best state, but yet I'm not targeting anyone, okay? This is for all of us.

This is for me. Maybe I could say it like this, if you feel like you're being targeted, It's your own lack of prayer that's marked you out. It's not me. Secondly, I acknowledge that there are men that do pray regularly and often. Some days are better than others.

Not every day is a high-watermark day. And so there's some reason to be thankful. There's some reason to be thankful. Number three, having said that, I must also say that just because you may be one who does pray often in public, that does not in and of itself mean everything is as it should be. It's possible for a man to pray, pray often, and yet not do so, like the rest of the verse says, with holiness of life, with loving motives, and with a heart of faith, as this very text requires.

Number four, I. I have struggled at times with some of these very things. So these aren't hypotheticals that I'm getting ready to give you, okay? The list I'm going to read in a few moments and go through, It's something that came to my mind rather quickly in a 15-minute walk around my driveway because it's real. Okay?

It's real. And fifthly, I share these things not to beat you up for your failures or to push you to discouragement, but rather to encourage you, to encourage you to press on in the spiritual disciplines of the Christian life. I want you to succeed. I want you to prosper. I want us as a church to prosper.

So reasons why we as men may not be praying publicly. These are not meant to be exhaustive. You may think of others that I fail to mention, perhaps out of your own experience, But I have listed 13. Number one, you're not a true believer. We have to consider it.

You're not a true believer. Could it be that you don't really have a relationship with God, that he's not your father. Could it be that Your lack of prayer is a revealing of the state of your heart, that you're a stranger to grace. Someone has said that prayer is as natural to the Christian as breathing is to our body. That strikes me right here.

Number two, self-reliance on the arm of the flesh. Self-reliance on the arm of the flesh. Self-reliance on the arm of the flesh. Maybe you are a Christian, maybe number one doesn't apply to you, But you're not convinced of the power of prayer. You don't pray unless you get into a bind that just seemingly leaves you no way out.

There's no sense of dependency upon God, but you've got this. We're under control. All's good. No need to pray. A self-reliance on the arm of the flesh.

Number three, another reason flesh. Number three, another reason for a lack of prayer is unconfessed sin. It's unconfessed sin. Maybe as a Christian you have sinned that you are coddling, you're unwilling to give it up. And you know in your heart of hearts that God won't hear your prayer while you go on regarding that sin in your heart, refusing to put it to death.

You know the psalm, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. That doesn't mean that if I find sin in my heart, if that's the case, we might as well stop praying altogether because we're going to find it. Regard means to have it before your face. It's not like it's sin that hasn't been revealed yet or that you're warring against. It's like I can appear before God and I can have this sin looking at it and praying and God's not going to hear that.

And maybe that's why you do not pray because not only do the heavens seem to be brass, but your own heart cries out against your hypocrisy. Number four, coldness of heart toward God, coldness of heart toward God. You may have left the love that you had at the first. You used to pray, you used to be engaged, but that was the former days. The lukewarmness has set in a comfortability, a content to just show up and set everything to cruise control.

And the things of God, they don't excite your heart. I personally have gone through some of this in recent days. I'm feeling that within my own heart and have fought against it. And it makes it hard to come into the house of God and to pray to God when your heart seems distant. It's difficult.

Number five, laziness in spiritual disciplines. Laziness in spiritual disciplines. Maybe you've left off the spiritual disciplines. You aren't reading your Bible regularly or if you do you get nothing out of it. You're not seeking God in prayer and private.

You know an athlete who is not training each and every day in preparation will certainly be exposed when he gets out there on the field. If you don't believe me, ask Kelly. He's probably seen it. Those guys who aren't training like they should, they get out on the field. It's going to show up.

It's going to show up. Maybe you can't participate in the marathon of public prayer because you have failed miserably in your own private exercises. Number six, Avoiding the hypocrisy label. Avoiding the hypocrisy label. Maybe your own conscience convicts you of your failures in your home with your family.

You know that There is no way that you can lead in prayer after what happened on the way to church Sunday morning or at the dinner table on Wednesday night. There's just no way You can do it. Your own heart condemns you as a hypocrite, as your wife and children would give witness to, to pray out loud after what they saw. Avoiding the hypocrisy label. Number seven, a lack of love for others.

A lack of love for others. This kind of goes back to my point I made, that Trent made, the profitability of prayer to the body. Christ said that the entire law hangs on what? Two things, love for God, love for others, everything. True, true, One that prays publicly could in the very recesses of their heart not love God or not love others.

I would agree with you on that. But my question is about what it says about those who don't pray. See if we're not praying, we go to the fact, oh well, that guy that prays, True. Another subject, we're talking about not praying. What does it say about those who don't pray?

It could be that you don't love others enough to sacrifice, to intercede on their behalf, to weep with those who weep, and rejoice with those who rejoice, to give thanks to God when it's...and then to ask God to intervene, to cry out to God to have mercy and to save. A lack of love for others. Eighth, kind of goes hand in hand a little bit, but preoccupation with your own things and faults. And that preoccupation is not necessarily one that lacks love and others, but inundated with things. Now, this can be a more difficult thing at a midweek prayer service.

It can be. You've been at your calling all day long and then you leave and you come into the house of God and though the outward press of things may be different we can struggle with this on Sunday morning as well. The flood of things that just come into our minds and we're there and we're tuned out. A preoccupation with your own things and thoughts. Ninth, an abdication of leadership role.

An abdication of your leadership role. When men have habitually refrained from public praying, I can't help but wonder if they have begun abdicating their leadership in their own homes. Men were created to lead, created. That's how God wired us men. He created us and wired us to lead.

Go study the statistics about church attendance And you'll see the vast difference between women and men in terms of attendance, that women's attendance out distances that of men. I think we see a sense of that even when it comes to public prayer. Man is your lack of public prayer an indication, is it? I'm asking a question. Is it an indication that you are failing to lead at home?

Number 10, an unwillingness to bear the load. An unwillingness to bear the load. You know what? Prayer is not an easy thing. It's not an easy thing to close our eyes, to focus on speaking to one whom we cannot see, we cannot hear.

It's a difficult thing. It's a labor. It's a labor. It's work. Perhaps you are unwilling to bear any of the weight, to bear any of that load of that hard task when we're gathered together.

You leave it for others to do. Number 11, number 11 another reason why we may not be praying, may not be praying often or struggle. It's a critical and sensorious spirit in regard to the prayer of others. A critical and sensorious spirit in regard to the prayer of others. Perhaps Perhaps, you come here intending to pray, but then you hear that man praying.

And You know which one I'm talking about, that man who just shared with you last week the problems that he was having with some particular sin in his life. How could he be praying? Well that brother there, why is he praying the third time this meeting? Oh no. There he is, that one again.

He prays the same thing almost every time he prays. It's as if he simply is hitting a replay button. And don't forget that man over there. So emotional. So emotional.

It certainly must all be shown. There are so many things that can flood our minds and embitter us towards others, what they're doing, the reasons. And then we become unwilling or unready to pray ourselves. Then we fail to do the duty God calls us to do because we're too busy thanking God that we're not like that man. Number 12, Pride and self-consciousness.

Pride and self-consciousness. Brothers, these things go hand in hand. Self-consciousness, if it's left to rule over us, it does so out of a sense of pride. It does so out of a sense of pride. You may think your prayers are not quite as eloquent as that man over there, Or maybe you're embarrassed because of your lack of command over vocabulary or of a speech impediment or a difficulty that you have to overcome or of the lack of ease to...

It's all up here. This is getting it up here and actually so it flows off and just rolls off my tongue. Maybe you're worried. This applies especially to some of the young men, maybe you're worried about what your peers may think of you, what they'll have to say, what they'll tease you about or maybe talk about when you're not there. Maybe you don't want to expose yourself to mistakes and errors and critique.

Sometimes when I get home or on the way home, my wife might say, honey, it was her sister, not his sister, or you used the whole totally wrong name. When you speak, all kinds of things can go sideways. But it really doesn't matter because the Lord knows our heart. He knows who it is we actually have in our mind. But we can get called up and I don't want to say the wrong thing or do the wrong thing or...

You see, pride can just as easily shut our mouths and cause us to withdraw just as it can cause us to zealously press on in our duties crying like, J, you come and see my zeal for the Lord. Pride can wear all kinds of masks. And dear one, don't think that maybe because you're one who has failed to pray that some of us who pray often don't deal with some of the same stuff. We deal with the pride sometimes that wants to pat ourselves on the back because we prayed so well. Pride's a detestable thing in the sight of our God.

Let's go to war against it, no matter whether we pray a lot or don't. Let's go to war against it. Let's mortify the pride and Let's pray, men. Let's pray. Thirteenth, last one that I'm going to give, a sense of unworthiness.

A sense of unworthiness. Maybe none of those other 12 things describe you. Maybe you're the one who is often overcome with a sense of unworthiness. Who are you? Who am I to come and to pray in the presence of the thrice holy God.

My dear friend, God is more ready to hear from you than you're ready to pray. He's more ready to hear from you than you're ready to pray. You have low views of the Christ who died for you in order that you may have access to the throne of grace. Get your eyes off of yourself, my friend. Jesus not only died for you but ever lives to intercede for you in order that you may not only come to the throne of grace but that you may come boldly, boldly to the throne of grace that you may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

My dear brothers, I urge you, wrestle with these things. I urge you to search your own hearts. I urge you to consider your God-given duty. Maybe I have failed to acknowledge some legitimate reason that keeps you from praying. I'm willing to consider that reason.

Come talk to me. Come talk to me. There may be a reason, but on the other hand, maybe the reason for your lack of participation is not a legitimate reason. Paul's desire is my desire. I desire that the men here in this place pray.

Pray. May God make us a praying people. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have just split hair of a second between back-to-back prayers? Amen. God we thank you.

It happens sometimes. But if that was the norm, if that was the norm, wouldn't that be wonderful? Wouldn't it be a grand problem to have where four brothers have to give way to a fifth brother because they all started prayer at the same time? That happens from time to time. Where two?

But boy, if four had to give place to the fifth because they all were ready to jump in, wouldn't it be exciting to see more and more men leading us in prayer. More and more, more and more. Wouldn't it be encouraging to see some of our young men Lifting up their voices in our times together on Wednesday night. My young friend, if you proclaim the name of Christ, you're declaring you've got the Spirit living within you. No different than me.

God's at work in you just like he's at work in me. Why not pray? Why not pray? We would love to hear you. We would love to hear you.

Our generations, not far from crossing that Jordan, it rests on you. Where are the Joshua's and Caleb's that we can look upon and say, the church is in good hands. These men are men of prayer. There's a reliance on God. There's a reliance on God.

Such a reliance that we as old men don't have to that extent. I leave you with this quote from Matthew Henry, when God deigns to bless his people, that means when God condescends with the purpose of blessing his people, he sets them up praying for the blessing he desires to give them. If that is indeed the case, then would your level of participation give us reason to think that God intends to bless us with something? Or would your level of participation give us reason to think that God does not intend to bless us. Would it rather seem to indicate that God has no intention of bringing on us a blessing?

Oh for such a blessing, my brothers, may we wrestle with God in prayer and cry out like Jacob, we will not let you go until you bless us. Oh Lord, let's pray. Father, we thank you that your word is a two-edged sword. It digs down deep. It goes down into the joint, into the marrow, and it lays us bare.

But oh God, what better place can there be than to have our hearts opened up under the scalpel of your word for you to remove out the cancerous cells of our remaining sin and to put us on the path of healing, a path of restoration, a path of health. Oh, Spirit, do your work. Take these words. May they not return to you in vain. And Lord, my purpose in giving them may it be not to discourage, but to encourage that the men of God in this place would be thoroughly equipped for every good work, even this work of prayer.

We pray in Christ's holy name, amen.