Agreement Part 2
Matthew 18:19-20 “Again I say to you that if [two of you] agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”
Last week we learned that this verse has both a precept and a promise.
Precepts: (a general rule intended to regulate behavior or thought)
Promise: (a declaration or assurance that one will do a particular thing or that a particular thing will happen.)
2. Agreeing together on earth will reinforce each other.
Another may strengthen my faith as I in turn strengthen theirs. No one has ever prayed until he or she has prayed for another. James 5:16 commands us to “pray one for another.” Prayer is God’s gift to us for helping others; it is more than a gift it is a sacred trust. It is the most important trust ever committed by God to His Church.
Agreeing together on this earth demands your association with the request you and someone else has asked for. Prayer culminates in action; prayer means more than asking God for the things we desire for others. With prayer the biggest part is doing.
Matthew 7:7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” Prayer makes you a co-worker with the divine; failure to understand this is the reason for so many unanswered prayers. Someone agreeing with you in prayer is the greatest advantage in life you could possibly have. We are a privileged people to know that others in the Body of Christ are lifting our name up before the Father on our behalf!
Anything which is known to more than one person ceases to be a secret.
There is a place and a time for secret prayer; all of us have found the need to pour out our heart alone before God. We all need to come to God as individuals. It is like a family of children; there are moments when each child feels they need their father’s full attention. There are things for which I ought to pray personally and privately; we will always have matters that do not concern others.
Matthew 6:6 “But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.”
Every believer should have secrets. Psalm 25:14 “ The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him and He will show them His covenant.” I want to tell Christ what is in my heart; we all need some privacy; we all need times of communion with our Father!
But there are also things that ought not to be secret. There are matters that ought to be trustworthy, about which two or three can come together and agree.
There will always be matters in life that need a partner, and we will live abbreviated lives until we learn to trust. A person who is cynical and skeptical toward everyone, will be cynical and skeptical toward Jesus.
I must learn to trust in spite of disappointment; where there is great confidence there will be great business and a healthy attitude.
Fear paralyzes; faith energizes, and the person who is afraid to venture because they feel someone may let them down will never succeed. There are “dependable” in this world; it is a big lesson to learn.
The sun will rise on time; the calendar is accurate and God has not gone out of business.
If believers can’t trust each other, neither can they trust God! So, Jesus says, “Two or three of you get together in My name.” There is a rule which works here; “in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established” (Matt. 18:16)
We must share; we must establish a public witness. May our faithfulness be established publicly! The concern of Christ is that the kingdom spreads; Jesus wants witness! The Church is not private, it is public! The greatest witness we can bear to a world system is that God still answers prayer.
Our tax-exempt multimillion dollar churches built on the right side of town have not been a witness to sinners that God lives and loves! Prayer that is publicly supported and documented will be a witness to the lost that God lives and loves.
The Church has no right to exist if it does not pray, and if there are no answers, that church is not praying! It may preform rituals and have fancy furniture; it may have a talented worship team, sing all the right songs, but it will have no answers!
God is glorified in results!