Called to Intercessory Prayer
Notes
Transcript
Preliminary: 1 Timothy 2:1-2
Preliminary: 1 Timothy 2:1-2
I invite you to turn with me to 1 Timothy 2:1-2 I want to talk with you tonight on the subject of prayer.
Do you remember the first prayer God answered for you?
I do
I was about seven or eight years old and was riding the school bus. It was a chilly morning and I was freezing, the person sitting in front of me had their window down. I just prayed a simple prayer - she was older and bigger than I was, I wasn’t going to mess with her - so I just prayed a silent simple prayer. It wasn’t but a short time and she stood up, and raised the window. I was so surprised and startled I didn’t know what to do...
Has the Lord ever answered your prayer?
Lets look at our scripture
Read: 1 Timothy 2:1-2
Read: 1 Timothy 2:1-2
1 I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;
2 For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
Paul exhorts believers to prayer -
Prayer is such an integral part of Christianity
It communicates - its conversation between heaven and earth.
It subjugates - When properly utilized it wrestles and conquers against Satan and his armies.
It Stimulates - It invigorates growth and spiritual formation
John Newton who is best known for writing the hymn Amazing Grace wrote many other deep and meaningful hymns as well. One we don’t sing but has powerful words on prayer goes like this:
1 Come, my soul, thy suit prepare,
Jesus loves to answer pray'r.
He Himself has bid thee pray,
rise and ask without delay.
2 Thou art coming to a King,
large petitions with thee bring,
for his grace and pow'r are such,
none can ever ask too much.
3 With my burden I begin,
Lord, remove this load of sin!
Let Thy blood, for sinners spilt,
set my conscience free from guilt.
4 Lord! I come to Thee for rest,
take possession of my breast;
there Thy blood-bought right maintain,
and without a rival reign.
5 While I am a pilgrim here,
let Thy love my spirit cheer;
as my Guide, my Guard, my Friend,
lead me to my journey’s end.
6 Show me what I have to do;
ev'ry hour my strength renew;
let me live a life of faith;
let me die Thy people's death.
Source: Hymns to the Living God #276
I love that second stanza - “Thou art coming to a King, large petitions with thee bring, for his grace and power are such, none can ever ask too much.”
I’m so thankful we have a God who hears prayer - The Psalmist said:
2 O thou that hearest prayer, Unto thee shall all flesh come.
David knew what it was to desperately pray and have his prayers heard. We sometimes call that “praying through” When we know God has heard us and is going to answer
8 Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity; For the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping.
9 The Lord hath heard my supplication; The Lord will receive my prayer.
Tim Keller says, "The only person who dares wake up a king at 3:00 AM for a glass of water is a child. WE HAVE THAT KIND OF ACCESS!!!
There are innumerable volumes and testimonies of how God answers personal prayer -
PRAYER AND THE EMPTY FLOUR BARREL
Believing prayer together with thanksgiving is the cure for anxiety. “God has never built a Christian strong enough,” Dr. Theodore L. Cuyler is quoted as saying, “to stand the strain of present duties and all the tons of tomorrow’s duties and sufferings piled upon the top of them.”
When Mr. Gibbud, a Christian worker, found his flour barrel empty on one occasion, and his wife tempted to anxiety, he suggested that they have prayer about the need, and that they then sing the Doxology into the empty flour barrel. This they did, as peace settled down upon their souls.
The next morning Mr. Gibbud found a barrel of flour on his back porch, and never knew to his dying day how it got there! God met them as they stood, with the empty barrel between them, upon the promise, “Be anxious for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and anxious for nothing; but in every tiling by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.” He will meet any of us in just the known unto God.” He will meet any of us in just the same way.
REMARKABLE ANSWERS TO PRAYER Basil Miller 1950 Nazarene Publishing House p77-78
Our text exhorts us to much prayer listen to this
1 I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;
Notice the Four types of prayers listed
Supplications - Requests and needs
Prayers - I like to do the Lord's prayer but others are wonderful too - Take the Psalms that are prayers and include them in your praying or use them as a pattern
Intercessions - Praying for others (Abraham over Sodom and Gomorrah)
Giving of Thanks - Thanking the Lord for what he has done.
Three Types of People to pray for
All men - Every person you come in contact with can and should be added to your prayer list especially if they do not know Christ.
Kings - World leaders - this would include our President and President Elect. Would you commit with me to pray more for our president.
All that are in authority - Anyone who is in some type of authority over you needs your prayers. Your boss, your governor, your mayor, your town council, your teachers, your pastor, your board members, any leader over you needs your prayers. Are you praying for them?
Andrew Murray reminds us:
“There are two sorts of prayer: personal and intercessory. The latter ordinarily occupies the lesser part of our time and energy.
Andrew Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer; Thoughts on Our Training for the Ministry of Intercession (Philadelphia: The Rodgers Company, n.d.), 34.
While all of the other types listed in our text (Supplications, Prayers, Giving of thanks) are of extreme importance
I believe One of the primary purposes of prayer is intercession.
Christians are called to intercessory prayer
Prayer is not difficult to understand. It is difficult to do. When was the last time your heart so grieved for those you were interceding for that your entire body agonized along with your mind and heart? (Heb. 5:7).
Henry T. Blackaby and Richard Blackaby, Experiencing God Day by Day (Nashville, TN: B&H Books, 1998).
My Utmost for His Highest December 13th—What to Pray For
In intercession you bring the person, or the circumstance that impinges on you, before God until you are moved by His attitude towards that person or circumstance. Intercession means filling up “that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ,” and that is why there are so few intercessors.
How important is intercession?
Look at Genesis 18:16-33
This is a story in the life of Abraham. He is sitting in the door of his tent and sees some men walking. He makes a meal for them and they stay and visit awhile.
Abraham recognizes quickly that his guests are not of the mortal sort.
They get a message about Sarah going to have a baby soon,
And then they get ready to go and the LORD tells Abraham what they are doing, They have heard some things about Sodom and they are going to check it out. Immediately Abraham is struck with a sense of urgency and great desire for God’s mercy and intervention. He begins to pray and intercede on behalf of these cities. Listen to this conversation
Genesis 18:23–32 (KJV 1900)
23 And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?
24 Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?
25 That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?
26 And the Lord said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.
27 And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes:
28 Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous: wilt thou destroy all the city for lack of five? And he said, If I find there forty and five, I will not destroy it.
29 And he spake unto him yet again, and said, Peradventure there shall be forty found there. And he said, I will not do it for forty’s sake.
30 And he said unto him, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak: Peradventure there shall thirty be found there. And he said, I will not do it, if I find thirty there.
31 And he said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord: Peradventure there shall be twenty found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for twenty’s sake.
32 And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten’s sake.
Some principles I’ve gleaned
It is God who gives the burden - not we who chose them.
I have prayed for someone intentionally and recieved a burden for them. What do I mean by the term burden? I mean a sense of urgency and desperate need of God’s intervention for them.
Abraham didn’t wake up one morning and say I’m going to pray that God won’t destroy Sodom - but when God gave him information he acted on it in prayer.
Dennis Kinlaw says: “Righteous people may be the means of salvation for those who are not righteous. A biblical principle is being laid down here; one’s welfare ultimately depends on another”. ( p.4)
He goes on to explain what he means by “everyone’s salvation rests on another” by saying it depends on the intercession of another. And when we get down to it it rests on “one other person” Jesus Christ.
Prayer can move the hand of God -
Your prayers, my prayers can effect the moving and working of God. I truly believe this. (Why else would we be exhorted to intercede for people in the Bible?)
A sobering side note to that is as Kinlaw questions:
"If the welfare of two great cities rested in the hands of Abraham, whose welfare rests in yours and mine? And are our hands praying hands.
Kinlaw, F. Dennis and Christine Albertson, Prayer Bearing he World as Jesus Did page 7.
Oswald Chambers warns us:
My Utmost for His Highest December 13th—What to Pray For
The thing to watch in intercession is that no soul is patched up, a soul must get through into contact with the life of God. Think of the number of souls God has brought about our path and we have dropped them! When we pray on the ground of Redemption, God creates something He can create in no other way than through intercessory prayer.
We are going to put this in practice two different ways -
Starting Sunday June 6th we will have a season of 30 minutes of prayer in our evening service. If you have a name of someone you want on that prayer list get that to me you can text, email, call, tell me after church. I will print a list and bring it for you to use.
But I also want to apply this tonight practically by calling you to a season of prayer
I want to close in prayer tonight - I want you to find a place to pray and ask God to help you to become an intercessor.
Commit yourself to Him, however and whomever he wishes to place on your heart
Pray for people yes - but pray also that God would give you an intercessors heart that he would burden you about someone, that he would put a soul in your hand as he put Sodom in Abraham’s hand.