The Power of Intercession

Chapter 11 starting at verse five and he said to them, which of you has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, friend, lend me three loaves for a friend of mine is arrived on a journey I have nothing to set before him and he will answer from within.

Do not bother me. The door is now shut my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he's a friend, yet because of this impudence, he will rise and give them whatever he needs a spray father. What a great parable great parable Lord that you have given us to teach us how we should pray pray heavily father tonight as we look at the different segments of this particular parable that you would just instruct us, Lord, and that we might leave this place with the a deeper desire to be intercessors and only father I pray for myself that you will help me that my innocence re-praying might be sweeter and might be more determinate and might be more often heavenly father we thank you for this prayer for you have given us a prayer here Lord that helps us realize that we should not take this prayer lightly that we should not take how we pray enough. In a frivolous manner, but Lord you have called us to be serious about prayer guide and direct us through it tonight will be very careful to give you praise and honor and glory for what you have teach us and it's in Jesus holy and wonderful and precious name we pray. Amen to be seated in verse one of Chapter 11, the disciples came to Jesus with the request.

Lord, teach us to pray and Jesus did and what he taught them to pray is what we call the Lord's prayer, but he didn't stop with just that he moved right onto to to give them this great parable and it's a parable that is is very very important because it's a parable has many great instructed truths for us on the subject of intercession. I think this is highly significant because if you go over to the book of acts, and you begin to study the prayers of the apostles you will find that those prayers are primarily prayers concerning for either praise or intercession are not blessed may honor me, it's all about me prior most of them had to do with either praising the Lord exalting him or intercessory prayer for others. One of the great desires of my heart is that I might become more proficient and more successful in intercessory prayer Luke 11 verse five through eight.

Jesus gives us a parable to shake us up to force us to get serious about intercession took to make us understand that without intercession, we are absolutely powerless. Intercessory prayer takes time.

It takes work. It takes heart.

It takes effort and there will be no true success without it. So let's focus on the parable are six points that I want to share with you tonight. Number one is an urgent need. Look at verses 5 to 6 and he said to them, which of you has a friend who will go to him at midnight and say the imprint, lend me three loans for a friend of mine is arrived on a journey and I have nothing to set before him.

Here's a picture of a man is asleep at Holmes got his family withing his children are asleep right aside and he's everything's going great. About midnight and all of a sudden he is awakened out of a sound sleep by a knock on the door. Here's this.Bam Bam Bam any any cries out because because a key candidate. Imagine who it might be at this hour. Any cries and says who is it in the man shares at your neighbor, your next-door neighbor.

And so what you want he said well we got some friends that have come in and we were not expecting them and they travel from a long distance, and they are absolutely starving to death and they need some food. So I've come to ask you to get up and to give me three loaves of bread right now and I needed absolutely nail because these friends are absolutely famished that they are experiencing a stomach cramps and hunger pains in and they have to get bread right nail their bread in the Scriptures.

A picture of Jesus in John chapter 6 Jesus said I am the bread of life.

I am the heavenly manna Jesus and Jesus alone is the one who can satisfy and the only one who can satisfy our spiritual hunger. The Greek word for intercession is a is a word that means mediation and that means to speak to one on behalf or not of another or to plead with one on the behalf of another.

Remember the story of Miriam when she contracted leprosy. Why did she contracted leprosy because she was condemning Moses for his marriage and and all of a sudden she got this terrible leprosy all over her body and she knew she would die with the us and she begged Moses to pray for her. And Moses did. Moses interceded for her. He prayed that God would remove that leprosy and God answered that prayer and removed her leprosy. Jesus right nail is doing what for us.

He is interceding for us. He is the right hand of God the father interceding for us taking our needs before the father sharing with the father. What we need and in what we want. You are never more like Jesus than you are when you're praying in intercessory prayer, Jesus given us a picture of our responsibility here to intercede for the lost and the first thing that I see is this urgent need. The neighbor did not want to wait till the next morning under the neighbor did not want to wait till the market opens where you could go in and buy some bread you want to do that because his friends were hungry and that their need was for the that moment right then that's when it needs to be met so he risked being humiliated, he risked being fussed at and he went to the door and he banged on that door until finally got the attention of his neighbor. People if there's any area where reform Christians tend error error is in the area of urgency to too often we shirk our Christian responsibility, and we blame our lack of zeal, especially in evangelism or or in intercessory prayer we blame it on the sovereignty of God.

We should never do that.

It's always wrong, always a people's I will in salvation and in God's hands yesterday is absolutely years but but God uses means and second causes to bring about his purposes. Now I'm not talking about human manipulation here. I'm talking about what Charles Spurgeon called gospel pressure too many misinformed people have the idea that Calvinism means that I don't really need to pray. I don't really need to preach.

I don't really need to witness because God's gonna say who he wheels so I don't need to do anything. I have no responsibility that is horrible member reading the story of William Carey that the missionary to India and he was getting ready to go to India as a very young man and get ready to make the trip.

He was there in his church is been up rifling the night before he left and is before they got ready to pray. One of the elders in the church stood up and said young Mr. Kerry PA said if God wants to save the heathen in India.

He certainly doesn't need your help to do it affects that's not Calvinism that's hyper Calvinism and it's a stench in the nostrils of a holy God.

God tells us that there is a law of the harvest, that whatsoever a man. So with that shall he also reap. And if we are not sowing into of the lives of others. Intercessory prayer if we're not praying for others and sharing with others and witnessing to others.

We can rest assured of the as we will see no spiritual fruit is biblical to tell people the consequences of failure to obey the gospel at the biblical thing to do that. It is biblical to pray for the lost that that the Lord would have mercy on them and save their souls. I remember when my daughter Beth was three years old.

I was supposed to be watching her one evening and to be honest I would watch her this as diligently as I should have been. I was watching a television program and all of a sudden it hit me that it was way too quiet and so I got concerned and I got up I started looking around didn't see Beth anywhere and so I walked out of the back door to look out in the backyard with a my two boys were playing in us a guys did Beth come out here and they said not dad. We had seen her so I went back in. Checked around the house stilled in severe.

So then I went out the front yard she wants, but I've ever supposed to go in the front yard by herself, but I went there check anyway and I went out to check behind every tree in every bush and looked all over the place for and still no Beth. By this time my heart, it's usually located right about here in my chest cavity was up in my throat beat my Adam's apple to death and all I could think about was his television show that I'd seen a few weeks before this half crazed, a psychopath had stolen a little kid out of somebody's front yard and taken that little boy often at and mutilated him and let me taste something I did some praying.

Goodness gracious.

Did I pray and you know it would one of these flowery, eloquent sounding prayers, Lord, thou that hope is that the mountains and there that that did just out the valleys. It was more like this.

God help help my daughter's missing.

What I don't know where she is. I don't know where to look, I don't know what to do.

Lord help me. Don't let some pervert grab her and do damage to mug little daughter around her in the front yard one more time and look. I ran back in the house.

I screamed to the top my lungs bath and also nestle the curtain move and she kinda nonchalantly just walked out from behind the curtain said, oh, hey daddy, how do you spell relief. That afternoon I spelled it be ETH. I didn't know whether to give her spiking her to hug her neck opted for the hug will light. Later that night when all my fears and anxieties. It died down and I was just kind of sit in there and I started just doing some thinking to myself about what it happened during that time that Beth was was missing. I was watching mash and during that time I could have cared less. What Hawkeye on radar were doing it just did not matter. It was right about our suppertime and usually my suppertime alive. I got on my mind is Putin and what's up or get a billion how much I'm going to enjoy it and all that. At that point in time, food was not appealing. I had no appetite whatsoever. Nothing else absolutely nothing else really mattered.

My little girl was lost and that was all that mattered and then it hit me. Why don't we get that urgent about people or loss from God, what, why don't we pray with that kind of fervency for people who who are separated from Almighty God by their sin and don't even realize it.

The sense of urgency is requirement for true intercession hit this man could not wait until the next day because he is his friends and it come to visit with him. They were hungry. Right then, they were absolutely starving to death. So he went to his neighbor and he banged his neighbor for bread for his friends.

Andrew Murray said to look at it this way is in each pricelist so will go down into utter darkness, perishing from hunger.

Even though there is bread to spare unknown millions of souls are dying without the knowledge of Christ our own neighbors and friends are dying without hope. Christians all around us are living a sickly, feeble and fruitless spiritual life. Surely there is a need for prayer. Why would we not feel this urgency might point to is willing love. Look at verse five and six again and he said to them, which of you as a friend will go to him at midnight and say them free, and lend me three loaves for a friend of mine is arrived on a journey and I have nothing to set before him. His friend took his this family that was visiting. They took Demian were hungry. They just brought Demian like like nothing had happened and I took him into their home, but I think they took them into their heart is well. He did not excuse himself as a way I'm sorry but we don't have any bread right now.

What did he do, he got up at midnight and he went out to find some bread.

Just anyway. Anyway, he could find it in first Corinthians chapter 13 verse five. The Scripture says this love seeks not its own. This man sacrificed his night rest he sacrifice his own comfort to get this family some bread that they desperately needed is the very nature of true love to forget self the calls of others.

Now, I do think it's possible to pray for people out of a sense of duty and I'm not saying that's wrong. God commanded us to pray, and we should pray because it's right because God said it, because God's given us commands and we all do it just because it's right but I started thinking you about a doctor at any doctor can operate on a person that he doesn't know that he doesn't love it and care for still wanting to get whale. He still wanted to be a successful operation. He still doesn't want there to be any any ramifications from what is done, else why is that why what is even care.

Willie cares because this comes from a love of his profession. Hey, he is a doctor and he wants to do doctors work well he wants to be looked up to as a as a good professional man, a good medical man, a doctor that knows what he's doing and a doctor that can be trusted, so there's nothing wrong with just doing what's right for the sake of it just right on the table. It's much better than that is not just doing it as a duty, but doing it as a joyful duty doing it because it brings great joy to your heart and you can get excited about that. The third point is a sense of powerlessness.

The last part of verse six says, and I have nothing to set before we just talked about love and love is extremely important but strong love can be utterly impotent strong love can be utterly impotent. We give an example Kenny Gordon's good friend of mine. We played football together in high school and after high school he started having kidney problems. Both his kidneys deteriorated and they just got to a situation where they can even function anymore.

His mama was a match for him for a kidney transplant in his mama said, I will gladly give my kitty for my son and she did and and I remember when I heard about all that going on how thought meant. Here's a mother who loves her son so much that she is risking her own life in order that that he might live well. They have the operation. They put her kidney into into Kenny's body and one long after that for the kidneys body rejected it and it just didn't work. They had to go back in and do another operational uncanny and take that a particular kidney out now thought his mama left him with everything she had.

She was willing to risk her own life for him, but she didn't have the ability the capability of making them whale of making that kidney work in his particular body.

She could not make that happen. The friend at midnight was willing to give his friend bread.

The only problem was he didn't have any.

He didn't have any one of things that happen in my heart when I started studying it really come to grip with the with the doctrine of grace was how important prayer was it just never hit me that that much before I came to realize that people don't come to Christ because of my speaking ability or my persuasive words or my creative evangelistic schemes that come to Christ.

When God the Holy Spirit does a work of conviction in their heart, and he brings them to Christ. I can preach, but I have no power to convert sinners listen to what Paul said about this.

First Corinthians 2135 and I when I came to you, brothers did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom brought decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified and I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling in my speech and my message were not implausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God before a person can preach before you can pray before he can serve God in any way. He needs to understand what Jesus said in John 1414. He said without me you can do nothing. We share verse with you that auto IQ shall jump up you Isaiah 64 verse four says from of old no one is heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God beside you who ask for those who wait for him. The word of God declares that God works on behalf of those who wait for him. The Hebrew word for weight isn't any interesting word. It's not a passive word like we would use weight today. It's a very active word and the word literally means to take the different threads of different threads and and weave them together to make a strong rope and as I look at and what waiting on the Lord means. I think it means taking things like prayer and Bible study and worship, weaving them together to build our dependence upon God and focus when we do that when we do that God's promise to work for us. That's the exact opposite theology of most of the world who says God helps those who help themselves. We need to go back to second Chronicles and chapter 20 and and read over and over again. The prayer of Jehoshaphat, Jost added three enemy armies coming against him, to destroy him and to destroy Judah, and they were just way outnumbered it look like there's no way in the world I can ever get out of this and what it what kind of prayer did Jehoshaphat pray he said, Lord, we don't have any mind. And we don't have any power and we don't know what to do, but our eyes are upon you. That's what God wants in intercession. The fourth point is faith in God.

What is the free and go to the neighbor he goes to the neighbor because he knows the neighbor has resources. He knows that the neighbor's got the bread that he needed so desperately. He knows that neighbor has got everything that he needs right there to take care of the need of his friends that have come to visit with them. This neighbor can alleviate the hunger pains that his friends were experiencing so he can trust him. He walks over the neighbor's house, believing that he is going to eight that he's going to get that bread.

He believes that with all his heart. He's gotta have that bread he's going after it is going to the neighbor he believes is going to get it. First John chapter 5 verse 14 gravers says that this is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. Mark chapter 11 verse 24 therefore I say to you, whatsoever things you ask when you pray, believe that you will receive them, and you will have them. This is not name a claimant blanket and rabbit theology because this faith must be accompanied by abiding in the word of God is a big difference just said, Lord, I will feel some claim in this let me have it.

So it was going on here truth of the matter is, many of us have unanswered prayers because we have not believe the promises of God.

We have not stood on the promises of God. We we have not believed that that God really desires to bless us with answered prayer.

If we did we pray more and we would trust more fifth point is prevailing if you let's look at verse seven and eight and he will answer from within. Do not bother me. The door is now shut my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything I tell you, though you will not get up and give you anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence, he will rise and giving whatever he needs the word impudence or in the King James version.

His importunity means a bulldog stick to witness. It means a serious perseverance. The picture what's going on it's midnight and others guys sleep.

Everything's fine, no problems. All of a sudden at midnight hears a knock on the door. Who is it, and the gases will Jacob might your next-door neighbor what you want. I got to have some bread. We had a family just came in. I was expecting them to, how I haven't been to the market. I wasn't ready for them to come, but they're here and they're hungry and they're starving and I and I need you to get up and get me three loaves of bread. This is look will deal with this in the morning go away and don't bother me right now keeps on knocking pieces I said I gotta have that bread right now I've got a heavyset look. If you want these kids up. My wife is going to be furious go away will deal with this tomorrow keeps knocking and the aces. What is it is a look, I'm not gonna let you line you got the bread. I know you got the bread and I begin to give you no rest. That man gets up and he gives in the bread that God is not ornery and resentful like this neighbor but you know God often will not give us what we requested and what we've asked for and there's a reason for that because he is testing our perseverance.

He wants us to wrestle in faith, George Mueller, the man he started the orphanage movement in England was a man of great steadfast prayer and he was an amazing guy, but he would pray for people and there's one particular man that was an unsaved man that he pray for for 60 years every day for 60 years he pray for that man's conversion somebody ask him about his and when you quit praying he said I'm not going to quit praying until God gives me an answer said it might be yes and it might be no but when I know God's given me the answer. I will not quit praying. Until that moment. Until that that comes so never give up in in prayer. I think of that man did he ever come to Christ if he did, and it was right after George Mueller died and there are some who say that they believe that it happened at George Mueller's funeral as we need to remember that give God no rest. Our prayers need to be not only with urgency but we need to persevere in prayer. Blessed is a man is not staggered by God's delays or God's silence or God's apparent refusals, but is strong in faith, giving glory to God.

The six point is the certainty of a rich reward. Look at verse eight. I tell you, though you will not get up and give them anything because he's his friend, yet because of his impudence, he will arise in giving whatever he needs this with the writer of Hebrews says about faith is but without faith it is impossible to please God for who comes to God must believe that he is that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him is not selfish to pray and beg and plead and and weep of your children's souls. That's not selfish it's not crazy to want salvation for someone so badly that you give God no rest because the reward is rich I will close with this illustration. EV heals the guy past drug have always greatly admired but he was preaching in South Texas and I was in a revival service woman came up to him after the service was over and she said Dr. he'll she said. I've been praying for my sons for 18 years and said both of them have no heart for God, and they have no use for the church and she said I don't know what to do and he said well said, let me pray about it tonight and said let me talk to your pastor and you can come back and we'll talk tomorrow. So he went right over to the pastors at this lady that is been talking to me over here so she a godly lady said oh yes, she's a godly lady said she submissive to her husband said she was she's a widow now, but all the time she was married. She was very submissive to her husband since she faithful to the church. He said absolutely faithful to the church. Is it okay anyone off to pray the next day this lady came up doing and she said he said that if I would meet with you today that you would give me some advice on what you thought I needed to do about my sons and he looked in her face and said lady.

This is what I want to share with you. May be there's the possibility that your sons are not saved because your eyes are not wet and they said I want you to meditate on some 126 verse six the Psalm that we signed tonight. He that goeth forth in weep if Barrett precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. She went right home, she went to her bedroom. She closed the door behind her locked the door. She got on her face and the floor and she began to pray. She stayed there all night long weeping and praying for her son.

Salvation, crying out to God to save her safer boys. The next morning she woke up. I mean she got up and she went and she she washed her face and then she walked into the bedroom of her oldest son Tommy and she said Tom and Anita talk to you is a mom you don't need to talk to me and she said what you mean.

He said I heard you last night, all night long weeping before the Lord, crying out my name to the Lord, beg, and the Lord to save my soul. He said I've been fighting against God. All my life and said tonight I realized just how wrong I've been, and said I've been greatly convicted of my sin and I repeated my sin of trusting Christ as my Lord and Savior said you don't have to worry about me anymore. I surrendered my heart to Christ she could not believe she was so joyful she went to see her other son went to his bedroom.

Anyone layered so she walked outside she saw her other son walking back from behind the barn.

She said Jim coming I want to talk to you Simona. You don't need to talk to me. She said I heard you crying and weeping over my sin and and over my soul all night long and set then I heard Tommy crying out to the Lord himself praying for his own salvation is that I realize just how desperately I need Christ center repeated to my sense of trust in Christ is my Lord and my Savior. He said would to God. This is happened 10 years ago is that always going to happen. We don't know we don't know what will happen, but in this particular situation. Those boys came to Christ, and that was 40 years ago and they're still serving God with all their heart, we pray with that kind of burden do we do we pray with that kind of of concern do we intercede like that. Lord, teach us to intercede spray heavenly father, we thank you for this precious passages parable that you gave us to teach us how important it is that we be faithful intercessors. We pray Jesus that you would help us, that we might sense the urgency and that we might be a people who have a bulldog stick to witness a serious perseverance, Lord, that we might be a people who give you no rest in prayer. Heavenly father, may we get serious about intercession may we get serious about our loved ones Lord who don't know you. May we not just take it for granted not let a day go by that we don't pray with great heartfelt concern in tears for the people that we love the people that you lay on her heart the people that we come in contact with the Lord you are there, hug, and you with her only answer we love you.

Thank you and praise you for loving us and we assess pray in Jesus precious name. Amen