In 'Striving Together in Prayer,' Jason Dohm explores the apostle Paul's call to the believers in Rome to join him in prayer. Paul, known for his frequent requests for prayer in his letters, emphasizes that he cannot fulfill his mission alone and needs God's intervention, which is strengthened by the prayers of others. Dohm highlights Paul's belief in the power of collective prayer over individual efforts. Paul makes a passionate appeal for prayers on two fronts: protection from unbelievers in Judea and for his service to be favorably received by the saints in Jerusalem. Despite the challenges he anticipates, Paul is confident in God's ability to deliver him and trusts that his service will be accepted. Dohm also discusses Paul's reliance on the universal lordship of Jesus Christ and the love of the Holy Spirit as reasons believers should pray for him. The sermon discusses the need for believers to mature into a greater dependence on God rather than out of it, recognizing their continuous need for prayer. Paul uses the metaphor of striving in prayer to emphasize the intensity and life-giving nature of true prayer, contrasting it with the lifelessness of religious formalism. Ultimately, Dohm concludes by reaffirming that God is the source of peace, supplying it abundantly to those in turmoil, and believers are encouraged to seek this peace through prayer.

The title of the sermon this morning is Striving Together in Prayer. It's actually a call for believers to strive together in our prayers to God. We're at the end of Paul's letter to the believers in Rome, just one chapter left, and Paul does something that's quite common for him. In other words, if you go to other letters of his, you're likely to find him doing the same thing. What is that?

Pleading for prayer. It's not uncommon at all for Paul to plead for other believers to pray for him. That's what he does in our text. So as we go to our text, let's ask the Lord to help us. God, we do need help.

We know that your word is a deep, deep well. How could we get to the bottom of any text? But I thank you that you have given your spirit to throw light on your word, help us to understand it, help us to understand how it should shape and mold our days. Pray that would happen today, that we would have a good understanding because your Holy Spirit is giving that to us and that we would know how our lives could be formed by the truths that are here. Please let these things be so in Jesus name.

Amen. Four verses, let's just take them one at a time. So hopefully you have your Bibles open to Romans chapter 15. Follow along as I reread verse 30. Paul writes, now I beg you brethren, through the Lord Jesus Christ and through the love of the Spirit that you strive together with me in prayers to God for me." On the handout I put this by verse 30.

What would the Apostle Paul beg for? Can you even imagine the Apostle Paul, the great apostle to the Gentile world being a beggar? Well, he actually makes himself a beggar. He considers himself a beggar. Paul makes a passionate appeal to his spiritual brothers and sisters, to his brothers and sisters in the Lord.

Pray with me for me. That's the passionate appeal. Pray with me. Don't leave me praying alone. And pray for me.

I'm praying for myself. I want you to pray with me. Paul understands that he has many needs and that only God can do all of the many things he can't do. So here's something we find out about the great apostle to the Gentiles, Paul. He doesn't think he can do everything.

He thinks actually there are many, many, many, many things that he can't do, but that God can do all those things and so he is a man of prayer. He is a man who believes in the power of prayer. So he prays for himself. Paul pleads to God for himself. He doesn't view that as a selfish act.

I should only pray for the things out there to be selfish of me to pray for myself. Paul is not armed with that way of thinking at all, but Paul doesn't want to pray by himself for himself. He believes in the power of prayer. He believes that God answers the prayers of his children and he believes that when his brothers and sisters join him in praying The claim on God is strengthened. Now, when I wrote that, there was something in me that recoiled from it a little bit.

Wait a minute. My prayers alone are inadequate. It takes the rest of us entering into my prayers to strengthen the claim on God. I actually think that is what is being taught today. There's something in me that wants to think otherwise, but I don't know how you can escape it.

If that isn't true, if Paul doesn't believe that when his brothers and sisters join him in praying, the claim on God is strengthened, then let's cancel Wednesday nights. Let's free up another night of the week. Just everyone pray on your own. If corporate prayer doesn't strengthen the cause of our prayers, why are we doing it? I can think of some reasons like it helps us sympathize with each other, doesn't it?

When we pray together, it helps us sympathize with each other. That's true. I agree with that. And it strengthens our interpersonal bonds in some ways. When we pray together, certainly our interpersonal bonds are strengthened to some extent.

But surely those are secondary benefits. Surely we're doing more on Wednesday nights or when we solicit the prayers of others and and pray with others. Surely we're just doing more than strengthening our interpersonal bonds and learning how to sympathize with each other. Paul wants other believers to pray for him because he has an intense sense of his need for God to act on his behalf. So that's what's driving Paul.

Why does he pray for himself? He has this intense sense of his need for God to act on his behalf and he believes God will act on his behalf in response to the prayers of his brethren. So I know that if you'll if you'll pray for me that because you are children of God, God will act on my behalf in response to your prayers. Paul is convinced of that, otherwise he wouldn't have put that in this letter. Paul makes his appeal on two grounds.

Through the Lord Jesus Christ and through the love of the Spirit. That is the grounds of his appeal for these believers in Rome who he's never met to pray for him. I appeal to you brothers and sisters through the Lord Jesus Christ and through the love of the Spirit. The King James Version renders it for the sake of, for Jesus's sake, for the sake of the love of the Spirit. I think this is a cousin of Romans 12.1.

What was Romans 12.1? I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the way, the word, the Greek word rendered beseech in Romans 12.1 is the same word rendered beg in our text. So, they're different English words that were chosen. Both are appropriate translations, but just know it's the exact same Greek word. So that is definitely a connection to our text.

I beseech you, or I beg you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. Do you remember that? I hope you haven't forgotten it already. It was last quarter's memory verse. Text.

Something is in view. Because of what is in view, this is what should follow. In 12.1, the mercies of God are in view. All the ways that God has been merciful to us, Paul sets them before you and puts them in your view. And what should follow is that we present our bodies a living sacrifice.

This is what makes it a reasonable service, not asking for anything heroic from you to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice. That sounds so heroic, doesn't it? I'm offering myself as a living sacrifice. It's heroic of me. Oh, not in view of the mercies of God.

And the views of the mercies of God is simply a reasonable service. This is in view the mercies of God and what should follow, what ought to follow from it is that we would offer our bodies a living sacrifice. In today's text, the universal lordship of Jesus, the Messiah, our Savior over all believers, and the love of God that we experience from the ministry of the Holy Spirit is in view, like the mercies of God. And what should follow is these brothers and sisters joining Paul in praying for his gospel labors. So, how do you get people that you've never met, most of who've never seen you, never been in your presence.

How do you get them to pray for you? What kind of claim do you have? Paul says I got two claims. One is Jesus is my Lord, Jesus is your Lord. Jesus saved me, Jesus saved you.

I have a claim on your prayers. I have experienced the love of God through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. You have received the love of God through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. I have a claim on your prayers. You should join me in praying for my gospel labors." I think that's the flow of logic, the argument that Paul is making in our text.

Paul is pleading with them. According to our translation, he is begging them to strive together with him in prayers to God. I think Paul picks words very carefully. Certainly the inspired Paul picks words very carefully. And I love what he does here.

Why? Because in saying that these believers should strive together with him in prayers to God, we get right away that this cannot be religious formalism religious formalism praying the mantra praying the religious incantation is the furthest thing from the description of strive with me in prayer. Those are incompatible. Religious formalism where we just mumble the mantra, where we mumble the religious incantation is a world away from striving together with God in prayer. I'm so thankful for the words he chose together.

This is a wrestling with God. This is a, to put it in the words of Jacob in the book of Genesis, where he said, I will not let you go until you bless me. Okay, now that fits the description, striving together in prayers to God. Religious formalism where you just mumble the mantra is another universe, a dead universe, a mechanical universe, A sterile lifeless universe. No, no, no.

But, but Paul is talking about something full of life. Strive with me in prayer. Wrestle with God with me in prayer for my gospel labors. Okay, let's apply this as we go. One.

I don't need the prayers of others until I make progress enough to be on my own two feet. Have you ever felt that way? One day I won't need the prayers of my brothers and sisters in Christ. I'll be mature enough. I'll be on my own two feet and then I can stop asking them to pray for me.

No, no. Do you plan to be more mature than Paul? I wish you luck. I hope you do. I doubt it.

I don't need the prayers of others just until I make enough progress to be on my own two feet. The Bible knows nothing of us being on our own two feet. Paul was pleading. We don't mature out of this need. In many ways, we mature into it.

Have you ever thought of it that way? I'm going to mature out of my need to solicit prayer. No, actually, as you walk with the Lord over time, and you learn the things about yourself, and your weaknesses, and your needs that you didn't know on the day that you were born again, you actually mature into a greater sense of need and a greater sense of dependence on God. And that's not bad, that's good. God doesn't want you to be less sensitive to your actual need for his power in your life.

He wants you to be more sensitive to it. He doesn't want you to be less dependent on him. Oh now I'm mature now I can stand on my own two feet. He wants you to be more dependent on him, depending on him every hour of every day and reflecting that by coming to him in prayer and soliciting the prayers of your brethren. We don't mature out of this, we actually mature into it in some ways.

Two, I should ask myself can my prayers be accurately described as striving in prayers to God? How much is your prayer life accurately described by wrestling with God? I will not let you go unless you bless me. I will stay here and cling to your ankles, oh God, until you bless me. No blessing, no letting go.

No blessing, no stopping. That's not irreverent, by the way. That honors God because it shows the dependence. God, how can I leave before you bless me because I don't have what I need? Only you can do it.

I can't do it. That honors God. It's not irreverent at all to pray that way. Verse 31, let's make progress. Verse 31, Paul continues, that I may be delivered from those in Judea who do not believe and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the Saints." Here's request one.

I think this is actually a counting error but I made the handouts and I was stuck. It's probably request one and two but I bumped them together so track with me. Request one, delivery from unbelievers and acceptable service to the saints. He asks God for these things. God, please deliver me from unbelievers when I get to Jerusalem, And please let my service to the saints be acceptable.

Let me refresh your memory with what Paul said in verses 25 and 26. Look back at 25 and 26. But now I am going to Jerusalem to minister to the saints for it pleased those from Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are in Jerusalem. So Paul has just expressed, I want to come to you, but I can't come to you quite yet. I have another plan first.

I'm going to collect from these two regions, Macedonia and Achaia, the believers there are giving towards the poor in Jerusalem, and I'm going to go minister that help to them there. When Paul gets to Jerusalem, he will encounter two kinds of people, unbelievers and saints. Those are the only two kinds of people in the world by the way, unbelievers and believers. He doesn't say unbelievers and believers. Unbelievers, people who have not trusted in Christ, people who have lived their life up to this moment rejecting Christ, and believers, but instead of believers he says saints because saints literally means holy ones or consecrated ones or ones who have been set apart, meaning God has put his hands on certain people in the world and he said, your mind, you belong to me.

And he's taken them to be his own. Now to us that looked like we were doing things, we were believing things and that is true. We did make a confession based on belief but that was just a sign of the work of God in our lives. God saying, you're mine and taking you to be his. All believers are saints and all saints are believers.

Anyone who is telling you anything else, tell them to take a hike. You should not be believing that. All believers are saints. All saints are believers. There are unbelievers in this world.

There are saints in this world. Paul knows, when I go to Jerusalem, I'm going to encounter these two kinds of people, and he's praying for both of these encounters. When I go to Jerusalem and encounter the unbelievers there, God, I need help. When I go to Jerusalem and encounter the saints there, the ones there that have been set, God set apart to himself, God, I need help for that. He wants to be delivered from or rescued from the unbelievers in Judea.

Why is that? Here's what the Expositors Bible commentary says, This group, the unbelievers in Judea, or the unbelievers in Jerusalem, had forced his departure from the city at an earlier date, Acts 9, and there was no reason to think they had mellowed. So if you go to Acts 9, you find Paul being converted and going to Jerusalem and instantaneously they try to kill him. So Paul has no sooner been converted to Christ than the Jews in Jerusalem are trying to kill him. And the Expositors Bible commentary says, yeah, that was early on and there's no reason to believe or hope that they've mellowed since then, and the Book of Acts bears that out.

They haven't mellowed. Their disposition is still the same towards Paul. He needs help against the plans, the intentions of the unbelievers in Judea against him. Understand, Paul was the unbelieving Jews' worst nightmare. He was the believing Jews' best friend.

He was the believing person's best friend as a preacher of the gospel, but it was the unbelieving Jews worst nightmare. Why is that? Because he used to be what they are, a violent opponent of the gospel. Only the worst nightmare of people who are violent opponents of the gospel are people who used to be that but now cling to Christ and can explain, I used to be that, but now I've seen. Just reading a world magazine about Rosaria Butterfield.

Who is Rosaria Butterfield? She's a reformed Presbyterian's wife, some mother, grandmother over in Durham. Was she always that? No, she used to be a radical homosexual feminist. Okay, and now she is the worst nightmare of radical homosexual feminists.

Why is that? Because she used to be that but now she says Jesus has set me free. They don't want to hear that. They don't want to hear you're bound up. This is the same thing.

So Paul wants to be delivered from the unbelieving Jews in Judea And Paul wants his service to the saints in Jerusalem to be acceptable. The NIV renders it favorably received. And you go to the lexicon, those are both perfectly fine translations. He wants his service to the saints in Jerusalem to be acceptable or to be favorably received. On the surface, that seems to me like a strange request.

They believe in Jesus, he believes in Jesus. They need money, he's bringing money. What's not to like? Who needs to be praying for a favorable reception when you have the money they need and you're going to deliver it to them. But as you read the progressing history of the book of Acts, meaning you're reading Acts sequentially as this history of the early church unfolds, it becomes clear that false reports were being circulated about Paul becoming an anti-nomian, an anti-law guy, which is actually wasn't true.

These were false reports. But even the church in Jerusalem was hearing these things and was being influenced by these things. So there is reason for him even though they need the poor there need the money that he's bringing there's reason for him to pray that he would be favorably received. Now, let's ask and answer the question, were these prayers answered or they answered? Was Paul delivered from the unbelievers in Judea?

In Acts 21, Paul is rescued by a Roman commander from the mob of Jewish unbelievers that is trying to kill him. The Roman commander comes and plucks them out of the middle of this mob before he's pulled apart by the mob. In Acts 23 there is a plot to assassinate Paul. Actually, more than 40 men take an oath we're not eating another bite of anything until Paul is dead. They take an oath before God.

But Paul's nephew, We don't know anything about him before or after, but this nephew who appears out of nowhere overhears the plot and comes to Paul and says, Uncle Paul, this is what they're planning. And Paul says, go to the Roman commander and tell him. And this ends up being what saves his life from an assassination plot. We don't get from the book of Acts whatever happened to the guys the 40 guys who said we're not eating another bite my guess is They got hungry and said just kidding, but we don't know That prayer was answered Paul was delivered in actually miraculous ways from the unbelievers in Judea. They had every right to fear their intentions towards him.

Was Paul's service to the saints in Jerusalem favorably received? Listen to Acts 21 17. This is Paul arriving in Jerusalem with the gifts from Macedonia and Achaia, Acts 21 17. And when we had come to Jerusalem, The Brethren received us gladly. Check.

Paul's prayers were answered. The Roman believers' prayers were answered. The Brethren received them gladly. Now let's apply. Let me ask you this question.

Are you praying both defensive and offensive prayers? Got both of those? You think about your prayer life? Defensive prayers and offensive prayers. If you're a believer, you have many enemies in this world.

You should be praying defensive prayers. God defend me. God defend me from your enemies in the world. Your enemies by definition are enemies to me. The people who hate you by definition hate me.

God protect me. There's a whole world system trying to overthrow me. God defend me. And if you're a believer you have many needs for progress Both in what you are to become and what you are to do You like Jesus yet Are you like not not do you like Jesus I know you like Jesus. Are you like Jesus?

Yeah. Most of us would say, a tiny little bit. Okay, then you should pray an offensive prayer. God, give me ground. I'm only a tiny little bit like your son.

Make me like your son. That's an offensive prayer. Give me ground that I don't have now. Are you done with your assigned work in the world yet? I don't feel very done with my assigned work in the world.

Yeah, I need to be praying offensive prayers. God, you've given me this work to do but how will I do it unless you do it in me through me give me ground offensive prayers are the give me ground prayers give me ground in my own life what I what I need to become the work that you've given me to do. Our prayers and our prayer requests should reflect both of these things. God defend me, defensive prayers, and God give me ground, offensive prayers. Verse 32.

Paul continues. Verse 32. Paul continues, This is request number two, or three. A great visit with the believers in Rome. Hey, If God grants me to come be with you, pray for the time.

Start praying for the time. Start praying that I would be able to come to you. Start praying for what it will be like when I'm there. I don't know how many more ways Paul can say it. I want to see you in person.

Here's how he started the letter Romans 1 10 through 12. Making request if by some means now at last I may find a way in the will of God to come to you for I long to see you that I may impart to you some spiritual gifts so that you may be established that is that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith of both you and me. And then again in this chapter look again at verses 23 and 24, but now no longer having a place in these parts and having a great desire these many years to come to you, whenever I journey to Spain I shall come to you, for I hope to see you on my journey and to be helped on my way there by you, if first I may enjoy your company for a while." He said it in chapter 1, he's already said it earlier in this chapter. Now this, now he's saying it again. Paul wants the believers in Rome, the saints in Rome, the one that God has claimed for himself, to join him in praying that he might come to them with joy that this might be found to be in the will of God Paul only desires it under the banner of the Lord desiring it This is a great way to pray.

I desire it but I only desire it if you desire it. To put all our expressed desires and prayer under the banner of God if you desire it. May my desires be found to be in in your will and that the visit might be mutually refreshing, that Paul would have his soul refreshed by being around these brothers and sisters, and that their souls would be refreshed by Paul coming to them. Surely you know something about your soul being refreshed by being around brethren. Did God answer these prayers?

Well, not in the way that Paul envisioned it when he wrote this and the way the believers in Rome envisioned it when they read it. I don't think that's a stretch. God had something different and ultimately better in mind. And you always have to add that clarification, ultimately better. Paul was actually going to be martyred in Rome to give his life for the faith in Rome.

So you might say, how is that better? It's ultimately better. We benefit today from the way that God had his will play out in the life of Paul. So it's ultimately better, although it cost Paul everything. God had something different and ultimately better in mind.

And Paul knew that might be the case. That's why he submits these things to the will of God. That's why in chapter one he says, oh, I hope it's the will of God for me to come to you. And he says the same thing again in our text. He submits these things to the will of God.

He knew it might be the case that God had something different in mind and ultimately better in mind. Paul did go to Rome as a guest of the Roman Empire, meaning a prisoner, a mandatory guest of the Roman Empire. He was there under house arrest for two years with the freedom to receive any and all who came to him preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence no one forbidding him." That's actually the words that end the book of Acts. There's nothing beyond that in the book of Acts. That's the end.

He received all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him. He did that day after day for two years. God had something different in mind. God had something better in mind. When we pray, We are not commanding a genie.

Three rubs, out comes the genie. Right, thanks Disney. And we tell the genie what to do. That's not what prayer is. We are asking an all-wise, all-loving Father.

We're asking, not commanding. We're asking, not telling. And the one we're asking isn't a genie of mythology. He is an all-wise, all-loving Father. He might have something different in mind than what we're asking.

But if he has something different in mind, it's ultimately better. We'll ultimately look back and say, God, you were so good to not do what I asked you for, but to do the different thing that was ultimately better. That for sure will be to look back on all our prayers that weren't answered. All they were answered. Find all wise, all loving Father, and in the end we'll be glad and say, God, you were so wise, you do all things well.

He does all things well. We don't even know what to ask for. Hope you believe that. Hope you've been in Christ long enough to learn. We don't even know what to ask for.

So Jesus is there to mediate all that. Praise God. Verse 33. Paul ends today's text this way, now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.

This is a benediction, the pronouncement of a blessing. Standing on behalf of God to pronounce a blessing on God's people. Sometimes it helps to ask a couple of simple questions. Who wrote this? Who is this written to?

Because this doesn't exist in isolation. It was written by a specific person who existed in specific circumstances and it was written to specific people who existed in specific circumstances. And a lot of times you don't really understand it until you give a little thought to who wrote it and what what they were living in and through and who it was written to and what they were living in and through. If you look at it just in isolation, stripping out that information, you don't really get it. In this case, it was written by a man who existed in more turmoil than anyone that I have ever personally met.

I'm 54 now, I've met a lot of people. I've never met anyone who existed in more turmoil than the Apostle Paul in the things that we read in the book of Acts. You know anybody who fits that description? Stoning and shipwrecks, and imprisonment, and vipers, and, and, and. And it was written to People who would be and probably already had been in tremendous turmoil.

This is written by a man who's experienced more turmoil than I can even imagine than anybody I've ever met to people who definitely will be in tremendous turmoil and probably already have been. Lots of upheaval. What do people like this need? The God who is the source of peace and the God who supplies peace and abundance. This is our God.

He is the God of peace. He is the source of peace. You need peace? Where do I go to get peace, God? Okay.

Well, is he stingy with it? No, to his children, he supplies it in abundance. He's abundant, supplying peace. This is what Paul needs. This is what the readers of his letter needs.

This is what we need. The God of peace to be with us. He says, be with all of you. He's not the God of peace towards some and not others. He's the God of peace that is with all of us all of us saints that God has put his hand on and said you're mine Amen.

Oh if I'm his then I'm the property of the God of peace. I belong to the God who is the source of peace. Where do you go to get peace? God. How is he with peace?

Stingy? No way. He supplies in abundance. So I'll say this. If you need this, if you need peace, you're not experiencing it at this moment, cry out to him.

Do like Matthew Henry, take his name with, remember Matthew Henry said that a few sermons back? When you're praying, God has given us titles and it strengthens some of those prayers. You need peace. Go to God. Go to the God of peace and use His name.

God, you're the God of peace. I need peace. Cry out to him. You'll find that he's the source of peace and that he supplies it in abundance. Let's pray.

Oh God of peace. Oh, God of peace. We know with certainty, the Bible students in the room know with certainty that you have not promised us the absence of turmoil or the absence of upheaval in this life. But you have given yourself a great title, the God of peace, and you have promised to be with all your people to never leave us or forsake us. Thank you God for being the great source of peace for supplying it in abundance to your children in need.

I pray that we would know this. Some of us might be in tremendous turmoil right now. I pray wherever that's the case that these sons or daughters of yours would find you to be the great source of peace, a one who supplies in such abundance. May it be so in Jesus' name, amen.