Main Idea: The best place for the uncertainties of life is in the hands of prayer.

Our family just returned this past Tuesday from a trip to New York City. Amy, Kathy and I had a great time going out to eat, seeing some shows, going shopping-well at least the girls had fun shopping. Whenever I go on a trip like that I try to research all I can about what we are going to do, where we are going to eat and when we are going to do what we have planned. I am famous in our family for my laminated maps of Disney World! While this time I didn’t really do that because this was a trip for our daughter Amy, I still had a laminated map that I carried with me. On it are the streets, landmarks and special places in the city as well as subway lines. It proved invaluable.

Now while we had made careful plans for our time in New York and knew that the reason we were there was to see the city, there were still things that were uncertain. We had no control over the plane and its schedule, the hotel and its staff, the weather, subways, and restaurants and on and on. Now we had no problem with any of those but if we had they would have been out of our control. We may have known our purpose for being in New York and had a plan for what we wanted to do but there were a huge number of factors over which we had no control. The truth was we were at the mercy of the uncontrollable and the uncertain. It is one thing to face the uncertainties of a vacation but it is entirely different when we face uncertainties in our life. The challenge is not if things are uncertain in our life but what are we going to do with all of the things that are uncertain. The question is what do we do with the things we can’t control?

What do you do with the uncertainties of your life? There are many of our youth who are headed off to college this week for the first time. They know where they are going, what they plan on majoring in but still there are so many things that are uncertain. There are many who are starting their last year of college and don’t know what will happen when they get that diploma. There are some who have employment concerns that are very uncertain. You know what you can do and what you want to do but there are so many things that you can’t control. This week I looked into the eyes of a friend who is facing a diagnosis of cancer. They are doing treatments and following a plan but there is so much uncertainty involved that it is overwhelming. Several of our families have persons deployed or being deployed to Iraq. There are things that are way beyond uncertain that those families face. The question is what do we do with the things we can’t control? Where do we put the things that are uncertain in life? I’m glad you asked because that’s what we are going to talk about this morning because I am convinced that the best place for life’s uncertainties is in the hands of prayer.

Putting life’s uncertainties in the hands of prayer is what Paul is talking about in Romans 15:30-33. Now to understand the verses read to you earlier we need to do just a little digging into the background of our passage. After finishing his third missionary journey Paul knew he had to go to Jerusalem to deliver an offering that he had gathered for the Christians there. He is writing this letter to the Christians in Rome from the city of Corinth in Greece. By the time he has written the verses we are looking at today he is at least 60, and for twenty years has been engaged in almost a superhuman task of preaching, teaching and serving the churches that he had helped start. He has been at this for twenty years and his body has been worn with disease and mangled with punishments and abuse. Yet his body and spirit remain fervent in their service for Christ. His plan is to go to Jerusalem deliver this offering and then head on to Rome to visit the Christians there. There’s only one problem—he doesn’t know what will happen to him when he goes to Jerusalem. So, he asks the Roman Christians to pray for him. He asks for prayer because he is facing the greatest uncertainty of his ministry.

I want you to see something in Romans 15: 15-16. Paul says, "For I am, by God's grace, a special messenger from Christ Jesus to you Gentiles. I bring you the Good News and offer you up as a fragrant sacrifice to God so that you might be pure and pleasing to him by the Holy Spirit." Paul knew who he was. He knew what God had called him to do. His calling in life was to preach Jesus to non-Jews everywhere he could but especially in places where no one had ever been (v. 20). Paul’s problem was not a lack of purpose for his life. He knew what to do with his life.

Now look at Romans 15: 23-24, "But now I have finished my work in these regions, and after all these long years of waiting, I am eager to visit you. I am planning to go to Spain, and when I do, I will stop off in Rome." Paul not only knew what he was to do in and with his life but he knew where he wanted to go with his life. He wanted to go on to Spain and preach there and while going to Spain he would visit the Christians in Rome. He had a dream and a plan that he couldn’t wait to complete. There was only one problem: he had no assurance that he could fulfill his plan. Paul’s problem was not a lack of direction.

Paul knew he had purpose and direction for his life. What he didn’t have was the certainty that he would be able to fulfill his purpose or accomplish his plan. So what did he do? Worry? Manipulate circumstances? Throw up his hands and act helpless? Pretend to be really spiritual and say "Well I am just trusting God." No what he did was ask for prayer for the things that were uncertain. Paul put what he could not control into the hands of prayer. That’s what he says in verses 30-33. He knew he was helpless to control the uncertainties he was facing so he asks these Christians to pray for him. We imagine Paul as being some great super apostle who would never expose or admit his weakness. Yet what we see in his letters is that because he knew the power of prayer he was more than willing to let others know of his needs. (Eph. 6:18-19, Phil. 1:19, Col. 4:2-3)

Now understand that when Paul asked for prayer he wasn’t talking about some sort of "Lay me down to sleep" prayer. No he knew that what he faced was going to be very hard so he needed their aggressive involvement (30b). That’s why he asks them to "struggle" with him in prayer. That word is a very interesting word found only here in the New Testament. It is a word that was used in the Greek games. That meant to carry on a conflict or a contest with someone else. Paul is asking the Romans to get involved with him in prayer, as a wrestler would join a match.

He also wanted them to be specific as they prayed (v.31). He tells them two specific things to pray for him. He tells them to pray for his safety and for his acceptance by the Jewish Christians. Paul knew that by going to Jerusalem he ran the risk of being killed. The Jewish leaders were willing to get rid of Paul just like they had killed Jesus and others. He also asks them to pray for his acceptance by the Jerusalem church. Remember Paul is bringing an offering from non-Jewish Christians to Jewish Christians. While some of the issues had been settled years before, there was no assurance the church would accept the gift. So it is not a settled matter. If they accept the gift as a gift and not as a bribe, then all is well. If they refuse it, then the division between Jew and non-Jews will grow wider and Paul would have wasted the last year of his life. So he brings his need before the Roman Christians, asking them to pray specifically for his safety and his acceptance.

After he has asked them to really pray for him and to pray specific things for him he says something very important in verses 32. He says, "Then, by the will of God, I will be able to come to you with a happy heart, and we will be an encouragement to each other." Do you see what he is saying? He knows he is faced with specific uncertainties. He knows that the best place for those uncertainties is in the hands of prayer. Yet he says that even though he has prayed and others have prayed that the final call for what is uncertain in his future is up to "the will of God"! He put what was uncertain in his life into the hands of prayer but ultimately he was putting them in to the hands of God. After he had prayed and others had prayed he knew the only thing left to do was to trust God to handle the rest! The best place for life’s uncertainties is in the hands of prayer because when we pray we ultimately put our uncertainties in God’s hands.

So what are the things that are uncertain in your life? Is it a career, a relationship, a marriage, your health, a problem, a decision, your children and their future? There are any number of things that we can list as things that are uncertain for us. If I were to ask you what you are doing with the things that are uncertain in your life what would you say? How do you react? You may react with fear. You know it is this sick feeling inside when our hands sweat, our heart races, our mouth gets dry and our mind can go numb. That’s called worry, anxiety and stress. That is a reaction that any of us can have if we choose. The only problem is that we can’t do that very long or our body starts to breakdown. We can react with anger. We can blow up and fuss and fume allover everyone around us. Again we can’t live like that because our bodies can’t survive. We can also push ahead with bulldozer like determination to try to control what we are unwilling to admit we can’t control. Don’t you know that is a fun trip for everyone! We can choose to run, hide or avoid what is uncertain and never risk being vulnerable. Just because something in our life is uncertain doesn’t mean there aren’t choices we make. The only problem is that they are most often the wrong ones.

If those are the wrong choices what is the right one for a Christian facing life’s uncertainties? The best place for life’s uncertainties is in the hands of prayer. I know you are saying that that sounds so simplistic and cliché. Too often people use prayer that way but that doesn’t change the truth though. Why is that true? It is true because a Christian lives in two dimensions or two worlds at the same time. We live in the world of what we can see and the world of what we can’t see. The physical world we live in is the one we can see. We also live in a spiritual world, which is the one we can’t see. Both of these worlds are filled with things that are uncertain and with things we can’t control. The truth is that while there are some things we can do to relieve our uncertainties the bottom line is the only thing we have at our control is prayer. God is the one who gets to make the final call but we have control over what we pray. Prayer is the way we have any influence with God working either in the things we can see or the things we can’t see. The best place for life’s uncertainties is in the hands of prayer.

When we were in New York we took the subway just about everywhere we wanted to go. Now that was pretty easy and efficient but we had some choices to make. We had to know where we wanted to go, either uptown or downtown. We had to determine which subway we wanted to take: Q, R, W, A, B, C or 1, 2, 3 and so on. Now once we made that choice we got on the train and our destination was no longer in our hands. It was in the hands of the person controlling the train. They were responsible to take that train to the place that was designated on the map and on the schedule that had been set. Now I could have tried to explain to the conductor that I didn’t like the way they were driving or that I really wanted to go somewhere else or to take me closer to a place where I didn’t have to walk so far. I could have chosen any of those things but it wouldn’t have done any good because once you are on the train and the door closes that is the end of your choices. It was out of my hands.

When you put your life’s uncertainties into the hands of prayer you are ultimately putting them into the hands of God. By the time you do that you have made a lot of choices-you know where it is you need certainty in your life. You know that prayer is not some way of throwing up a last shot and hoping for the best. You have struggled in prayer and asked others to struggle with you. You are specific about your requests and talk to God with deep earnestness and intensity. Yet at last you come to understand that what that you put in the hands of prayer you are really putting in the hands of God. Once our uncertainties are in God’s hands that is where we have to let go of them. Just like our getting on the subway took control out of our hands so when we put our uncertainties into the hands of prayer we are putting their outcome into the hands of God.

I need you to understand that putting our uncertainties into the hands of prayer doesn’t mean that everything we ask for will happen and come wrapped up with a bow. It didn’t for Paul. He did get to Rome but it wasn’t as he had planned. The way he got there was as a prisoner. When he got to Jerusalem he was arrested and put on trial after the Jewish leaders lied and manipulated the Roman government. He was passed off from one official to the next until at last he was taken to the Emperor in Rome. Did he still get to Rome? Yes, but not as he planned. So why should you pray about your uncertainties if there is still no certainty that things are going to get any more certain? Because by your becoming a Christian you made a decision that God’s plan takes priority over yours. It doesn’t mean your plan is wrong and it may turn out to be his very plan for you. It just means that the ultimate plan is his call and prayer is the only way to come to peace with that.

Here is what I want you to do this week: I want you to put down in the space on the worship guide the one big thing about which you are uncertain. You may have a lot of things but find that one big thing and get specific. Then I want you to put it into the hands of prayer. You may want to get with some other Christian and pray together. You may want to get alone for an extended period of time. However you do it put that one uncertainty into the hands of prayer. You may have to do this repeatedly until you know that it is really there and you have let go. When you do this you will discover the "fret reduction" in your life. Will there still be the uncertainty out there? Yes. What is different is not the uncertainty. What’s different is you!

I read this quote in a devotional by John Fischer a few weeks ago, "Lord, there are two ways we can do this, yours and mine. Mine is not working. Let's do it your way." I don’t know about you but I’m signing up for his way. Mine quit working a long time ago. I just didn’t know it. His way is best. The best place for life’s uncertainties is in the hands of prayer. When they are there, they are in the hands of God.

Sunday, August 13, 2006

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org