05 - The Prayer Of Intercession 2016 By Pastor Jeff Wickwire Notes

1 Tim. 2:1-3 "First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, 2 for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. 3 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior..."

We've been talking about prayer the last few weeks...

Every Christian's call to prayer

Why Some prayers go unanswered

The Prayer of Perseverance

The Prayer of Spiritual Warfare

And now this time I want to talk about the prayer of intercession....

Author Samuel Chadwick wrote, "Satan dreads nothing but prayer. His one concern is to keep the saints from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, he mocks our wisdom, but he trembles when we pray."

Prayer is the one thing Satan will do anything and everything to keep you from...

His diversionary tactics go from unbelief, to busyness, to sin, to spiritual dryness....totally content if you are involved in "good works" so long as that doesn't include prayer!

Because Prayer releases God into your problem,

His liberty into your bondage,

His wisdom into your perplexity,

His peace into your trouble,

His guidance into your confusion,

His healing into your hurt,

His strength into your weakness, and

His power into your impossibility!

No wonder Satan doesn't want God's people to PRAY!

"The effectual, heartfelt, sustained prayer of a righteous person releases great power, dynamic in its working." (James 5: 16).

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Now, in our text, the Apostle Paul lists 4 types of prayer:

SUPPLICATION is the prayer of entreaty...praying for a specific, heart-felt need."

PRAYERS refer to a simple, general request. Whereas the suppliant is crying out due to a deep, heartfelt need, the PRAY-ER here is simply bringing to God their requests....it is not as intense a prayer as the prayer of supplication.

THANKSGIVING is "the giving of thanks for God's grace." Thanksgiving is a type of prayer.

The exact same family of prayer words is found in Philippians: "In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God..." (Phil. 4:6-7).

And then the last prayer word is:

INTERCESSIONS literally means, "approaching the king" for an intervention, to stand in between God and the object of His impending judgment...

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We've all heard how the word "sin" means "to miss the mark."

Well, the word INTERCESSION comes from an opposite word that literally means "to hit the mark, to hit the bullseye."

That's because the INTERCESSOR is one who waits before God long enough to discern His will over a situation, then prays accurately, according to His will, and their prayers "hit the mark, hit the bullseye."

In the wilderness when the people had angered the Lord and judgment was falling, it's says,

"...but Aaron burned the incense and purified the people. He stood between the dead and the living, and the plague stopped" (Numbers 16:47-48).

When again the people had provoked the judgment of God, we're told Moses prayed, "But now, please forgive their sin--but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written" (Ex. 32:32).

He stood between God and the object of His wrath and intervened according to the will of God.

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Now, the classic picture of INTERCESSION is the story of Abraham's intercession over Sodom and Gomorrah...

First we have...

God's impending judgment on Sodom...

The Bible says that one day Abraham received 3 visitors...

He immediately discerned they were not of this world, but were angels, there for a somber purpose.

The Bible says when it came time for them to leave, "Then the men got up from their meal and looked out toward Sodom. As they left, Abraham went with them to send them on their way. 17 Should I hide my plan from Abraham?” the Lord asked." (Gen. 18:16-17).

So, at this point in the story, Abraham sees that their attention is drawn to Sodom....And God has also revealed His desire to tell Abraham the real reason for their visit to earth.

So here we see Abraham, the soon to be intercessor, lingering in God's presence to discern His will, to understand what He's doing.

And GOD WAS MORE THAN WILLING TO TELL HIS MAN what was on His heart!

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God tells Abraham, “I have heard a great outcry from Sodom and Gomorrah, because their sin is so flagrant. 21 I am going down to see if their actions are as wicked as I have heard. If not, I want to know" (18:20-21).

In a flash, Abraham is made to understand that Sodom is in the crosshairs of God's coming judgment.

Moral perversion had infected the entire populous...

And rushing in with this revelation is the realization that his nephew, Lot, and his family are living in the midst of the city of doom.

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So first, God's man, God's intercessor, has been made aware of a coming catastrophic judgment...

America is in the same place, and God is looking for Abraham's, for intercessors...

Next we see that Abraham...

II. Steps between God and man...

"Then the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom, while Abraham was still standing before the Lord" (vs.22).

Two of the three headed off toward Sodom while the third man who the Bible identifies as "the Lord" remains behind.

This is clearly a Christophany, a pre-incarnate visit of Jesus Christ to earth prior to the virgin birth...

Notice how the Bible says "Abraham was still standing before the Lord."

His position in relation to the Lord is important here...

The word "before" means "facing."

He positions himself in front of the Lord, between the Lord and Sodom, and boldly faces Him.

This illustrates intercessory posture at its finest...

We have to think here of the verse in Hebrews that says, "Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace..." (4:16).

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Now, make no mistake, this is exactly what God wanted Abraham to do!

Abraham is not being presumptuous, cocky, arrogant, or disrespectful...

God has already said, "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?"

What other reason would God have in telling him than that He wanted his man to intercede for the city?

God always reveals coming judgment to His people that they might pray...

"Surely the Sovereign LORD does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets" (Amos 3:7).

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Then third,

III. Abraham's Intercession commences...

Knowing God's will, and standing before God as a praying intercessor, Abraham now begins what seems like a bargaining session...

He starts with a question that is really a statement of what He knows to be true about God:

"Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?" Says Abraham. "Will not the judge of all the earth do right?" (18:23,25)

It's not that Abraham is having to turn God away from doing something wrong...

He is acknowledging his belief in the ultimate righteousness and goodness of God...

It might have read, "Lord, we both know that you won't judge the righteous with the wicked."

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Then Abraham begins a process of whittling down the number of righteous people God is willing to spare the entire city for...

He goes from 50 righteous, to 45 to 30 to 20 and finally ends with 10 righteous people...

"Then he said, 'May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there."

God replies, "For the sake of ten I will not destroy it" (18:32).

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What we learn here is that God much prefers mercy over judgment.

He allows Abraham to pray for more and more mercy, almost whittling the number of righteous down to nothing.

God says in Ezekiel 18:23, "Do you think that I like to see wicked people die? says the Sovereign LORD. Of course not! I want them to turn from their wicked ways and live."

James 2:13 "Mercy triumphs over judgment."

So this intercession/intervention session ends with God's promise that He will spare the city if a grand total of 10 righteous people are found to live there.

But we know, tragically, there weren't even 10!

The whole city had been corrupted from stem to stern, inside and out, the whole place was wicked.

We see in the chilling attack of the Sodomites against the two angels in Lot's house that...

"All the men from every part of the city of Sodom--both young and old--surrounded the house."

The moral corruption of the city of Sodom had infected young, old, and in between.

Their brazen boldness and lack of shame testifies that their conscience had become totally seared.

No wonder the "cry" of that place had reached the ear of God!

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Now, I want you to notice again the mercy of God manifested at this time...

God had agreed to 10 righteous being enough to spare the city from judgment...

But when 10 could not be found, the two angels began to urge Lot, saying:

"Do you have anyone else here--sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here, because we are going to destroy this place. The outcry to the Lord against its people is so great that he has sent us to destroy it" (19:12-13).

God is extending mercy beyond His own agreement with Abraham!

I picture a terrified Lot running through the dark, sin-infested, dusky streets of Sodom.

Heart pounding, he bangs on the door of the first future son-in-law and says, "Hurry, get out of this place, for the Lord is about to destroy it!" But the young man mocks him.

Then he runs to the second house to the second future son-in-law with the same message, and again he is mocked.

Judgment is moments away and his warning to get out is ignored....

Jesus warned, "As it was in the days of Lot, so shall it be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man" (Luke 17:28).

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As the sun began inching up over the horizon, God's mercy is extended even further, for the Bible says...

"As Lot tarried, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and two daughters and led them safely out of the city..." (19:16)

Lot tarried, his wife tarried, his daughters tarried...none of them could bring themselves to flee, and God literally snatched them out!

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Now, I want you to see the power of intercession here...

Had Abraham not interceded, would Lot and his family have been delivered?

Would there have been offered this window of opportunity to escape?

The Bible would seem to insinuate.....NO.

Lot had, by his own poor decisions, rooted himself and his family in this wicked, godless city.

He had been given numerous opportunities to leave and didn't take them.

He had even become an elder, a gatekeeper in this vile place.

Yet....God heard Abraham's intercession and went beyond even what Abraham had asked for!

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Now, you're probably saying, "Jeff, that was Abraham. I don't have that kind of pull with God."

But you do!

"You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a called out people..."

As a PRIEST before God you are called to intercede.

Jesus, our Great High Priest, promised, "The works I do, you shall do also..." (John 14:12).

Well, what are the "works" Jesus does?

It says, "Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them" (Heb. 7:25).

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Today, God is looking for intercessors who will stand in the gap, stand between God and the object of His impending judgment, and pray for mercy, for revival, for grace...