PRAYER: CO-LABORING WITH GOD

PRAYER: CO-LABORING WITH GOD Ezekiel 22:30 May 21, 2000 Given by: Pastor Rich Bersett [Index of Past Messages] Computer hackers are a passionate bunch-they love what they do. They are people who are willing to sit in front of their electronic machinery for hours and sometimes days on end, completely absorbed in their projects. They are addicts, people obsessed with an objective-to break the codes and gain entry into a cyber realm that someone else is trying to keep them out of. Very often, their objective is simply to leave a message or a note for the site hosts just to let them know they were able to get in. Others are more diabolical as they steal sometimes millions of dollars with a few entries. Still others are known as hacksters because, like pranksters, they just want to re-write a few files, write in a little bad language or carry out some other kind of cyber vandalism. There is a new breed of hackers now who are using their skills with political agendas. Called "hacktivists" they break into sites to pump political protest messages or propaganda through the Internet's security holes, or they flood the site with multiple thousands of email messages, inundating the system and forcing a shutdown by the company. A day after China's human rights agency announced its new Web site, their official view of China's human rights record was replaced by a few words from an electronic trespasser: "China's people have no rights at all, never mind human rights. How can the United States trade millions of dollars with them and give them most favored trade status when they know what is happening?" Jesus said there is a way to hack into heaven with our messages. He called it prayer. He further claimed that if a pray-er was offering prayer in His name or authority, he could be sure of God's answers. An article in the Denver Rocky Mountain News described various web sites to which people can submit prayers. One site, Newprayer.com, says, "Simply click on the 'Pray' button and transmit your prayer to the only known location of God." The site claims "that it can send prayers via a radio transmitter to God's last known location," a star cluster called M13 believed to be one of the oldest in the universe. "Crandall Stone, 50, a Cambridge, Massachusetts, engineer and freelance consultant, set up the site last winter after a night of sipping brandy and philosophizing with friends in Vermont. The conversation turned to Big Bang theories of creation, and someone suggested that if everything was in one place at the time of the explosion, then God must have been there, too. "'It's the one place where we could be sure he was,' Stone said. 'Then we thought that if we could find that location and had a radio transmitter, we could send a message to God.' "After consulting with NASA scientists, the friends settled on M13 as the likely location. They chipped in about $20,000, and built a radio-wave-transmitting Web site." Stone reports that they transmit about 50,000 prayers a week from seekers around the globe. Jesus says He knows where God is and it is not so complicated to reach Him. John 15:7 - "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you." In the previous chapter He said, "I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask anything in my name, and I will do it."   (John 14:13-14). What Jesus has given us is the code to holy place of God-the password to the answers of God. It can be said in a couple of ways: pray in my name or pray according to my will or pray in keeping with my word. We are not to think that we can hack into heaven-on-earth with our own will. That is to say, we have no promise that we will receive from Jesus anything that is not His will. But, if our will happens to coincide with His will, we will get it, if we ask. James 4 makes it clear that if we don't ask we won't receive - You have not because you ask not (James 4:2). So, it appears that our primary tasks, in terms of being able to pray in faith and receive without limits, are that we: 1) learn to know the Lord's will in the matters about which we will be praying, and 2) allow the Spirit of God to shape our wills according to the Father's will. One more interesting observation: God is quite interested in our being involved with Him in this matter of getting His will done on earth as it is in heaven. He wants us to pray and ask Him to do the things we have learned He wants to do. Now, if we are to be praying particularly for the things that we know are the will of God, what are those things that we know are the will of God? The famous author and expert in prayer, E.M. Bounds said, "When God wants to get something done, He sets His people to praying." In short God not only stirs us to pray, but He leads us in what to pray about. Beyond that, He is so gracious that, if and when we are unable to hear what we are to pray for, He has placed His Holy Spirit in our hearts who will intercede on our behalf! And that in perfect accord with the will of the Father! Let's look at a couple of passages to find the purpose behind the prayers. In the famous exhortation by the apostle Paul to Timothy and the church at Ephesus, you will recognize these familiar words: I urge, then, that requests, prayers, intercessions and thanksgiving be made for everyone-for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. Now the less familiar words: This is good and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth, for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ, who gave himself as a ransom for all men." (1 Timothy 2:1-4) Matthew 9:38 - Jesus commanded the disciples "Ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest field." Why? The previous two verses explain why-the harvest is plentiful and He had compassion on the crowds. In Colossians 4, Paul asked the believers, Pray for us. Why? That God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ. (verse 3). As the people of God, our very lives are to be as INTERCESSION for people around us who do not yet have a saving relationship with God through Jesus. What is intercession? "Pleading on another's behalf." Here is a startling truth. God depends on our prayers and intercession! "Wait a minute," you say, "God doesn't need us-He can get His work done whether or not He gets our help!" In a sense that is true-if we don't do our part to pray in a harvest or His will in some manner, He WILL get it done. But He'll get it done by turning to another person of more faith to pray it in. Ezekiel 22:30 is our text this morning. I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in ht gap on behalf of the land, so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none. So I will pour out my wrath o them and consume them with my fiery anger. In the early 580's BC, the Lord spoke through the prophet Ezekiel that He was unable to find those who would stand defensively, through spiritual leadership and intercession, on behalf of the nation, against the impending destruction. Two important ideas emerge here: 1. God was counting on the intercession of people to stay His hand of judgment-it was His will that someone cry out for His mercy on behalf of the land. But no one did, and judgment was about to fall. 2. That the Lord was looking for A MAN who would stand in the gap of spiritual leadership and intercession for the people was symbolic of His looking for a group of people. We know that He already had at least two faithful people-Ezekiel and his contemporary, Jeremiah. God was looking for co-laborers who would step to the front and intercede for Judah, leading her to repentance. I don't like the implications of this teaching any more than you do. There is an overwhelming sense of responsibility attached to it. It is alarming to consider that God has somehow limited Himself to us earthlings to get His work done through faithful intercession. Let me ask you: is the earth in its condition today the will of God? Either He wants it in this condition or He doesn't. We are certain, of course, that it is NOT His will. So we must assume one of two things: either He is powerless to change it, or He is waiting for us to step up and co-labor with Him. Peter Wagner wrote: We must understand that our sovereign God has for His own reasons so designed this world that much of what is truly His will He makes contingent on the attitudes and actions of human beings. He allows humans to make decisions that can influence history.. Human inaction does not nullify the atonement, but human inaction can make the atonement ineffective for lost people. Jack Hayford, in his book, Prayer is Invading the Impossible, writes Prayer is essentially a partnership of the redeemed child of God working hand in hand with God toward the realization of His redemptive purposes on earth. Let me bring this down to plain language for us today - God is calling us to be co-laborers with Him in His grand scheme to bring as many in the world as will come into a saving relationship with Him through faith in Jesus. And the primary means by which we do our part is intercession. Is it the will of God that people come to repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus? Is there any question about the validity of this mission? Is this program worthy of your prayers? I want to speak to our church family about a matter of concern. Over the course of the past months the Lord has brought continual reminders to us that He wants us to blanket the neighborhood to our immediate west with the good news that Jesus can make the people who live there friends with God. As the initial tactic for reaching this neighborhood, the elders of this church have encouraged us for three weeks to pray for the people in the neighborhood, that the Lord would open doors and open hearts to us as we share the message with them. To grant full coverage of the neighborhood, we announced three weeks ago that everyone in the church family would be able to adopt one household to pray for. Here is my concern. The last two Sundays, since the list of homes has been made available, only forty-eight out of 140-some have been adopted for prayer. That means that three-fourths of the Sunday morning assembly of this church has said, "No, I do not wish to volunteer to pray for someone in this neighborhood who may be going to hell." Now, I know that a dozen or so of us are saying to themselves, "Oh, that's right! I forgot to sign up again last Sunday!" Everyone understands about being forgetful. But what of the over one half of our adult constituency who have not agreed to pray for one home? And furthermore, what does our forgetfulness say about our passion to co-labor with God on behalf of our neighbors? I also understand that some people just don't like to sign up for programs, but, you know, this whole idea is so simple, so uncomplicatedly direct an appeal, that it just cannot be offensive. Maybe the non-involvement betokens an attitude of pride or resistance to being told what to do. Or there is a wrong attitude toward leadership. Brothers and sisters, if   there is something so wrong with your relationship with this church, that the suggestion of working in unity with the rest of the body here on so simple and right a project as praying for lost people, then something is seriously wrong. Perhaps someone has heard from the Lord. Maybe there is a testimony of someone to whom the Lord has spoken and He said, "No, my son, the spiritual leadership of that church is all fouled up-and I say to you I absolutely do NOT want you to pray for those people; so don't you dare volunteer to intercede for one of those families or you will be anathema! Let me say it again clearly. We are asking that every member of this church take a card with a single address on it, representing one household in the neighborhood to the immediate west of our Worship Center, sign your name that you have adopted this household, then pray during the month of May for the people who live at this address. You are NOT being asked to pay a visit or go to their home and share the gospel with them, although that should not be too much to ask of a believer anyway. You will not be expected to even visit that home, although someone will in early June. You are simply asked to intercede before the Lord on behalf of the family that lives at your adopted address. You are encouraged to drive by and see the address and get a spiritual feel for the purposes of praying. I can't help but hear the sound of Ezekiel 22:30 - I looked for a man among them who would stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land..,but I found none. Let me remind you again of one of the most awesome truths in all the scriptural record: God answers prayer! Dwight Nelson recently told a true story about a pastor.... He had a kitten that climbed up a tree in his backyard and then was afraid to come down. The pastor coaxed, offered warm milk, etc. The kitty would not come down. The tree was not sturdy enough to climb, so the pastor decided that if he tied a rope to his car and drove away so that the tree bent down, he could then reach up and get the kitten. He did all this, checking his progress in the car frequently, then figured if he went just a little bit further, the tree would be bent sufficiently for him to reach the kitten. But as he moved a little further forward.... the rope broke. The tree went "boing!" and the kitten instantly sailed through the air-out of sight. The pastor felt terrible. He walked all over the neighborhood asking people if they'd seen a little kitten. Nobody had seen a stray kitten. So he prayed, "Lord, I just commit this kitten to your keeping," and went on about his business. A few days later he was at the grocery store, and met one of his church members. He happened to look into her shopping cart and was amazed to see cat food. Now this woman was a cat hater and everyone knew it, so he asked her, "Why are you buying cat food when you hate cats so much?" She replied, "You won't believe this," and told him how her little girl had been begging her for a cat, but she kept refusing. Then a few days before, the child had begged again, so the mom finally told her little girl, "Well, if God gives you a cat, I'll let you keep it." She told the pastor, "I watched my child go out in the yard, get on her knees, and ask God for a cat. And really, Pastor, you won't believe this, but I saw it with my own eyes. A kitten suddenly came flying out of the blue sky, with its paws spread out, and landed right in front of her." In closing I have a few words of instruction out of the Bible concerning how to pray for people who are lost. 1. Pray that the veil be lifted - 2 Corinthians 4:3 2. Pray that the blinders be removed - 2 Corinthians 4:4 3. Pray that someone be sent to teach them the word of Christ - Romans 10:14-17 (divine arrangements: Acts 8:27ff; 10:1 - 11:18) 4. Pray that a "door of faith" be opened - Acts 14:26-28 5. Pray that the Spirit of God would work wonders to awaken them - 1 Corinthians 2:4-5 6. Pray that strongholds of wrong thinking would be demolished - 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 7. Pray for the success of the "agricultural model" - 1 Corinthians 3:6-7       [Back to Top]