Pray to the Father For Others - Tim Conway

You can turn in your Bibles

to Ephesians 3.

Now we had left off in Ephesians 3:14.

We went down through v. 13.

We're going to pick things up,

and spend a number of weeks here

in the last half of Ephesians 3.

Let's read this.

We'll read from verse 14
to the end of the chapter.

"For this reason,

I bow my knees before the Father,

from whom every family in heaven

and on earth is named,

that according to the riches of His glory,

He may grant you to be strengthened

with power through His Spirit

in your inner being,

so that Christ may dwell in
your hearts through faith,

that you being rooted and grounded in love

may have strength to comprehend

with all the saints what is the breadth

and length and height and depth

and to know the love of Christ

that surpasses knowledge,

that you may be filled with
all the fullness of God.

Now to Him who is able to
do far more abundantly

than all we ask or think,

according to the power at work within us,

to Him be glory in the church

and in Christ Jesus

throughout all generations

forever and ever. Amen."

"For this reason..."

Look at verse 14.

"For this reason..."

What's going on here? It's been awhile.

Remember with me.

Remember.

You've got your face there in your Bible.

You see, "For this reason..."

And if you go back up
to verse 1 of chapter 3,

you see that he started the same way.

"For this reason..."

Now, could it be that in both places

he's speaking about different things?

It could be.

I mean, you could be having a conversation

with somebody and you could say,

"For this reason so-and-so..."

And then later in the
conversation, you could say,

"For this reason..." and
you mean another reason.

And that's possible.

In both cases, verse 1, "For this reason,

I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus
on behalf of you Gentiles..."

Verse 14, "For this reason, I bow
my knees before the Father..."

In both cases, we might ask,

what's happening?

What reason?

Well, just remember this with me.

Back up in chapter 3:1,

most of your Bibles -

I recognize if you've got
the King James Version

it doesn't have this, but
most every other Bible

has that double dash
at the end of verse 1.

Now whether your Bible has it or doesn't,

obviously it doesn't show
up in the original Greek.

There's no double dash there to be found.

This is put here by the translators.

Why? Because they're
assuming that Paul digresses.

They're assuming what you have

from verse 2 to verse 13 is a parenthesis.

In other words, Paul was starting to say

what he says in verse 14.

"For this reason,

I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus..."

and he was going to say,

"...bow my knees before the Father."

But you know what?

In describing himself as a prisoner,

he recognized that -

you can see it in verse 13 -

he recognized the people might lose heart.

He recognized that he
himself being in prison

might create sorrow in their hearts.

And so, he digresses.

He digresses to basically show them,

look, this is your glory
that I'm in prison.

This is not a bad thing.

Don't get discouraged.
Don't be depressed.

Don't lose heart to the
fact that I'm doing this.

And you know what? We all do this.

We all at times are speaking to somebody,

and as we're speaking to them

and we're trying to say one thing,

a thought comes into our mind

that something I just said
needs to be clarified,

or something I just said
needs some extra light,

and we feel like we need
to abruptly interrupt

and stick it in there
before we keep going.

We do that.

And you know, one of the things is

we sometimes think that
because men are inspired,

that they can't do those kinds of things.

Because it's almost like we view

inspired writers as dictating
for the Spirit of God.

My mother used to be a legal secretary,

and she, back in the day -

this was before they have
all the recording ability,

she did shorthand.

Anybody remember shorthand?

She would have the attorney dictate to her

and she would write down in shorthand.

But that is not the way
Scripture comes to us.

Can we allow somebody

that's under the inspiration of the Spirit

to suddenly interrupt
their train of thought

and go in another direction?

I love this.

It shows the nature of
God-breathed Scripture.

Paul can be completely controlled
by the Spirit of God,

and yet, the Spirit isn't
just dictating to him

like he's some robot.

That's not what's happening.

Paul writes in such a way

that his own thinking, his own writing

are free and spontaneous,

and yet he is writing word-for-word

what God wants him to write.

That's what happens.

Here's an interruption in
Paul's train of thought.

And yet, the whole thing is

divinely conceived and controlled.

And so, what happens, you get to v. 14,

and now Paul's going to go back

to what he was originally wanting to say.

"For this reason..."

We ought to ask, "what reason?"

Now he says this:

"For this reason, I bow my knees

before the Father,

from whom every family in
heaven and on earth is named,

that according to the riches of His glory
He may grant you to be strengthened."

Now, it could be "for this
reason, I bow my knees."

Why? "Because I want you to have power."

It could be that.

But if you go back up to
3:1 when he first said it,

"For this reason..."

well, it's very likely pointing
to what he got done saying

at the end of chapter two.

It's likely his whole reasoning is this:

"For this reason..."

Because you Gentiles -

because that's been his
whole argument all along -

you Gentile Christians have been added

to the saints of God.

Because of your standing...

Go back to chapter 2.

Let's just run through this really fast.

Verse 13. "They were brought near."

Verse 16, "reconciled to God."

Verse 18, "given access to the Father."

Verse 19, "fellow citizens,"

"members of the household of God."

Verse 20, "on the apostolic foundation,

Christ Jesus Himself
being the cornerstone."

Verse 22, "built together...

dwelling place for God."

Paul bows his knees before the Father why?

To pray for this elect people.

"For this reason..."
because of your standing.

And I like this.

I mean, this causes me to think.

Do you recognize?

When Paul speaks to Christians

in the New Testament,

he is talking about how often

he thanks the Lord for them

and how unceasingly he prays for them.

When Paul found elect people of God,

he was constrained.

People who the Father loved.

He looks at them.

He recognized they're not
like the rest of the world.

They're beloved of God,

and it struck a chord in his own love.

Paul prayed for God's people.

You can't get away from that reality.

He prayed. He prayed.

Why? These people are
adopted by the Father.

Adopted through Jesus Christ.

Adopted as sons.

They're part of the family.

They're in.

These are God's people.

He's set His love on them.

And for Paul, that was powerful.

When he found true Christians,

it had a singular effect on
the angle of his knees.

And you notice: "I bow my knees."

It caused them to bend.

Now, here's the thing.

I know this.

I have desired since the very
beginning of this church

that we would have a praying church

because I'm absolutely convinced

that we need God, and praying
people lay hold on God,

and God responds to praying people.

God moves and things happen.

Prayer is absolutely essential

in the life of the church.

And what I find is this,

when you find prayers in Scripture,

they as much as anything

are great lessons in how the church

should be praying.

And so, I want us to
take this for what it is.

Paul.

He's praying. It's a prayer.

Well, not exactly.

He's telling us how he prays.

This isn't him actually praying

like Jesus in John 17.

This is him telling the
Ephesians how he prays,

his posture of prayer, and what he prays.

That's what's happening here.

Paul telling us how.

Massively instructive.

Why? Because Paul's under inspiration.

You know what the Spirit's doing here?

"Paul, tell them how you pray."

That is helpful.

Because you know, we
see a lot of people pray.

You come to the prayer meetings.
You hear people pray.

You get in small groups.
You hear people pray.

When we don't get into small groups,

but we all stay together,

we pass that microphone around,

voices come through the speakers.

Undoubtedly throughout your lives,
you hear people pray.

And we can ask the question,

are our prayers pleasing to God?

Are our prayers biblical?

Do our prayers resemble something

that would seem to be pleasing to God?

Maybe we say, well, if we pray,

doesn't that in itself please God?

But I'll tell you this, there's a place

definitely to learn how to pray.

Jesus taught His disciples,
"pray this way."

There's a place for being instructed.

There's a place for learning.

And I find this, when you find a prayer

that we know to be
inspired of the Holy Spirit,

under inspiration.

The Spirit was moving Paul

to tell these Ephesians how he prayed.

And it's going to do us well

to pay attention to this.

Do people pray according to the Spirit?

You know, you can hear somebody pray -

well, is that according to the Spirit?

Is that not according to the Spirit?

Well, we know this is.

If you ever want God just to
teach you how to pray, here it is.

We don't have to guess.

This is acceptable.

And brethren, you'll
notice what isn't here.

This jumps out at me.

What's not here?

Oh, how shallow it is when people

just simply pray,

"Lord, bless this, bless him,

bless her, bless that,
bless the other thing."

You notice Paul doesn't even
use that word "bless" once?

Now look, I'm certainly not saying

that you can't use that
term when you pray,

but oh, how often, praying for a blessing

is just a default word for
not knowing what to pray

and for shallow prayer.

In fact, if you go through Scripture

and you look at the specific prayers

that are given in Scripture,

how seldom - or never - do you find

that word "bless."

Of course, we want God's blessing!

But what sort of blessing?

Paul is specific. See him there.

See him there on bended knee.

What is he going to ask for?

What is it?

Hear him.

"Father..." can you see him?

Bended knee.

Where was he?

I don't know where he was.

He's in some kind of prison.

He was imprisoned.

You can imagine him in a prison cell.

You can imagine that a lot
of his time was spent there.

And what's he praying for?

Hear him. Hear him. Hear his words.

"Father, please, please..." what?

Bless them? Bless that?

Bless Thessalonica? Bless Philippi?

Bless the Romans?

Bless those at Jerusalem?

It's not that.

He's very specific.

And he says specifically
for these Ephesians,

on bowed, bended knee;

listen to his voice.

He says, "Father, please,

according to the riches of Your glory..."

Now, you can stop right there.

"Father..."

Not in some meager way.

Not in some off-handed way.

Not in some barely recognizable way.

Not in some way where we've got to

squint real hard to say,

did He answer or not?

But, "according to the
riches of Your glory."

What a powerful plea!

What an argument!

"Please, Father, please...

I'm asking You to answer.

Not in some barely recoginizable way.

Arise! Act consistent with
the riches of Your glory."

That is a way worth praying.

That's how you want to pray.

"Lord, please..."

Look, we're not like the lost people.

We're not like the pagans.

You're not like you
were when you were lost

and a nominal whatever-you-were.

Whether you were a lost Baptist,

a lost pagan, a lost nominal Catholic,

lost religious, lost unreligious.

The god you called upon

and the kind of prayers you had

and some little idol

or some small figment of your imagination,

listen, that is not the way
we've learned our Scripture.

That's not the way we've
learned the God of Scripture.

He is not some small little idol,

some little statue to
be prayed to like that.

He's not like those Indian gods

that they have to carry around.

This God is the living God,

and He doesn't need to be carried.

And He can part Red Seas,

and when you pray to Him,

you should pray according
to the magnitude of His glory.

That's what Paul's doing.

Don't pray silly little prayers.

Look, that doesn't mean you
can't pray for the smallest things.

I remember Mueller. He would say -

you know in his day, I guess
they were the quill pens.

He said something about if a pen

needs to have the cartridge replaced

or whatever they called it in that day,

he said it's worth praying about.

Obviously, even praying
about small things,

we should blanket everything
in our lives in prayer.

But I'm just saying this,

we have a big God and we should pray

as though He is big; He is rich.

If you have something worth praying for;

if you have something you
think God should grant,

if there's some great
mountain in your way,

then if you're going to ask
God to do something,

ask Him for the best.

Ask Him for the biggest.

Ask Him according to the riches.

Brethren, I remember this,

I remember there being
something in my life

that I really desired to see happen.

And I saw a TV show

where that thing was granted to somebody.

I went to the Lord, and I said,

Lord, they can think that up
and put that on TV.

And that's not even real.

But they can imagine that.

The true God -

Lord, You ought to be able to do better

than Hollywood can do.

And certainly He can.

And certainly, He would have
us have that expectation.

Ask Him - how?

Ask Him according to His riches.

You know we've got a rich God!

Do you believe that when you go to pray?

"According to His riches."

Paul isn't messing around.

He goes to Him,

"Father, I'm asking for something.

Lord, according to the
riches of Your glory."

Riches!

Riches - His glory.

That's how we should pray.

Ask Him.

He doesn't say, "Oh well, you know...

Humility - if we're going to be humble.

we should never ask too much.

We should never ask anything too big."

Listen, what is humility? What is pride?

Pride is when we're stuck on ourselves.

Pride is when we see ourselves big.

But what's humility all about?

Humility is seeing ourselves small

and seeing God big.

And if you're going to
claim that God is big,

then act like it when you pray.

You see, seeing Him as big is not pride,

and acting as though
He's big is not pride.

You see, you insult Him

(incomplete thought)

when you have these small
expectations from Him.

Look what He does in Scripture.

He saved 3,000 people in a day.

You see, whether it's arguing with God

concerning Hollywood -

seriously, Lord?

Is Hollywood going to create better

fictitious stories, more glorious

than what You can do?

Are you going to allow that to happen?

But the other argument is:

Lord, are you simply going to have us

live off the history books?

The pages of Scripture that talk about

the great works of God in the past?

Lord, is that it?

Should we just content ourselves

that well, 3,000 people got saved in a day

back in the book of Acts,

but that can't happen anymore.

So we're not even
going to ask such things.

You know what our sister is asking

down in Saltillo?

She sent out a Whatsapp
message this morning

and she's praying that
God would save 20 people

in Santa Margarita

when our brother goes
there to preach today.

What think ye?

Impossible?

See, have we just grown
to expect very little?

Have we come to the place:

Well, God doesn't do that.

God doesn't part the Red Sea anymore.

God doesn't do those things.

We should have no expectation.

I'll tell you, if you were on
bended knee next to Paul

and you were listening to him praying;

you were in that prison cell with him,

you might be surprised at what he prayed.

You might be surprised at the vastness,

the size of his prayers.

Do things according to Your greatness

in my weakness.

Do you know we have a giving God?

I mean, when God talks about supplying

all of our need according to His riches

in glory in Christ Jesus,

have you thought about that?

(incomplete thought)

God will supply your needs

according to His riches.

Do you believe that?

Do you know how rich God is?

Do you pray like He is?

I'm not talking about just selfishly

trying to accumulate everything;

I'm not talking about fleshly
desires and covetousness.

I'm talking about being involved
in the Kingdom of Christ,

and really having a desire
for the glory of God,

and praying in that way.

(incomplete thought)

Listen, if He didn't spare His own Son,

how will He not what?

In Him, isn't He going to give us

every good thing?

I mean, don't we have
promises of a God who's giving?

Every good and perfect gift

comes down from the Father of lights.

No variableness. No shadow of turning.

Now that's important. He doesn't change.

He's giving.

You know, David - we heard
about him in the first hour.

He could cast himself on God's mercy.

Please don't hand me over to men.

But you hand me over to God,

because His mercies are great.

And that's why He was
praying for that son so long.

He knew God's mercies.

He prayed for that boy because he thought

there was a good possibility

that God in all of His
mercies would answer.

Now God didn't answer.

God didn't save that boy,

but you know what?

It shows what David thought about his God.

He recognized this is a God

whose tendencies are mercy.

Look, if you come to a
God who is infinite,

He is almighty, and His very character

is just spilling over with mercy,

and He's given us examples like this,

listen, let this resonate.

The Spirit of God recorded this -

Paul praying the way he prays,

so that it would be preserved for us,

so that we could learn from this.

How do you pray?

You come to a God like this.

Do you not hear Newton?

"Large petitions with thee bring."

Why?

Why? Because you're coming to a King.

His grace and power are such

you can never ask too much.

That's the kind of God we're coming to.

Listen, if you go before King David -

we heard about him -

or King Solomon in all of
his riches and his glory;

or you go before Caesar,

or you before Pharaoh,

or you go before President Trump

and you ask for a piece of bubble gum.

And you know what? We can think,

well, that's ridiculous, but that's how

a lot of our prayers are.

Paul's not messing around.

He's coming before the King of Kings.

And he is appealing -
that is a way to appeal -

God, please, don't give to me

like the false gods give.

Don't give to me like the demons give.

Don't give to me like the non-gods give.

You remember those prophets of Baal

up on Mount Carmel?

Slicing and cutting themselves

and jumping around, and the prophet says,

"Well, maybe he's gone on a trip.

Maybe he's relieving himself.

Maybe he's this or that..."

Listen, when you pray,

you don't want it to be like that.

We want to pray to this God

and we want response

according to the riches,

according to those.

How rich is God?

I mean, if we look and we say,

"Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ,"

why? He's blessed us with every

spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

If we're looking at this,

He says He blesses us.

He has given us promise of blessing.

He does things like parts the Red Seas.

He wants us recounting His great works.

Why? So that our faith would
increase, increase, increase.

So that when we come to Him,

we would not have little faith,

and we would not ask for little things,

and we'd not ask for bubble gum.

Don't do that. Don't pray that way.

We need to pray big prayers.

Jesus said it!

If you've got faith the
size of a mustard seed,

what can you not do?

That's the issue.

How do we pray?

We need to pray.

We need to pray big prayers.

We need to pray according to God's riches.

His riches in glory.

He is a giving God.

Don't pray to Him as though

He is some little god.

And listen, you're praying to Him

as though He is a little god,

if you pray to Him and then walk away

not expecting a response.

Listen, if you come
into the prayer meeting,

and the only reason you pray things

is because it was brought
up as a prayer request,

and you just prayed it

because other people were listening,

but you have no expectation -

then stop. Stop!

You're praying to Him like what?

That's an insult.

Pray what you believe you need.

Pray what you believe is
going to be to His glory.

Pray what your children need to be saved,

what your relatives need to be saved,

what the church needs to not fall away.

Pray big!

Don't pray like He's some
little incompetent god.

Don't pray to Him in a way

that's going to insult Him.

Now, Geoffrey Thomas was
just with us a few weeks back.

And he said that he used to think

that the Holy Spirit was
the forgotten member

of the Trinity.

And he said he's not convinced
that's the case anymore.

He now believes God the Father is.

I think he is exactly right.

The forgotten member of the Trinity.

I'm saying among the three -

you know we live in an age

when the Holy Spirit is
getting a lot of attention.

What's happened to the Father?

Some Christian circles, it seems like

it starts and ends with Jesus.

But you will notice that Paul

is bending his knee before the Father.

The Father.

What I want you to think about here

is the Father for a second.

Now, you know, I went through

from Ephesians 1:1 to Ephesians 3:14.

I counted how many times
the Father was referenced,

how many times Jesus was referenced,

and how many times the
Holy Spirit was referenced.

Can you guess?

Make a wild guess.

If you were to imagine how much

each of them proportionately -

do you have any idea?

Equal?

The Father and the Son are about equal

in their references.

The Spirit much less.

But here's the thing,

in the first chapter and a half,

the references to Jesus Christ

are by far references that identify

some aspect of the Father.

It's not until you get to chapter 2:13

or thereabouts,

that Christ's involvement
in our redemption

is really spelled out for us.

I want you to think about the Father.

Just go through - quick survey.

Ephesians 1.

You see, this is very characteristic.

Ephesians 1:1, "Paul, an apostle of
Christ Jesus, by the will of God."

Well, Christ is in there,

but how is He in there?

He's in there only by way
of identifying the Father.

Paul is an apostle of Christ,

but the active member of the Godhead

that is making this happen is indeed

the will of God.

This is the Father.

You see as we move through here,

verse 3, "Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ."

There again, you have
the Lord Jesus Christ,

but why is His name there?

His name is there simply to describe,

to give identity to who the Father is.

But it's the Father who is active.

It is the Father who is moving.

It is the Father who is giving.

It is the Father who is choosing.

It is the Father adopting.
It is the Father predestinating.

It is the Father's will.

Again and again and again we see this.

Look,"blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He it is who has blessed us in
Christ with every spiritual blessing.

For even as He chose us..."

It's the Father.

Verse 5, "He predestined us."

It's the Father.

Verse 6, "To the praise of His..."

This is the Father.

"...With which He has
blessed us in the Beloved."

That's in Christ.

Verse 9, it's the Father
making known to us

the mystery of His will

according to His purpose.

It's the Father's purpose
which He set forth in Christ.

If it was Christ there, you don't say,

"which He set forth in Christ,"

but "which He set forth in Himself."

But that's not it. It's God.

Verse 11, "In Him (in Christ),

we have obtained an inheritance

having been predestined according to

the purpose of [the Father],

Him who works all things according to

the counsel of His will

so that we who were
the first to hope in Christ

might be to the praise of His glory."

He is the one who gives the Holy Spirit.

He is the one if you go to verse 15,

"For this reason, because I've heard

of your faith in the Lord Jesus

and your love toward all the saints,

I do not cease to give thanks for you,
remembering you in my prayers,

that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ,

the Father of glory,

may give you the Spirit of wisdom."

See, it's the Father who is giving this.

It's the Father who opens their eyes,

enlightens them, gives them

a knowledge of these things.

Verse 20, or the end of 19,

"According to the working
of His great might

that He worked in Christ when He raised

Him from the dead."

It's the Father who raised
Christ from the dead.

It's the Father who is
working His great might

in the people of God.

You keep going through here.

Verse 2:4, "But God
being rich in mercy..."

There's the Father again.

"Because of the great love
with which He loved us

even when we were dead in our trespasses,

made us alive together with Christ."

God is doing this.

God raises us up.

It's God's love; it's God's mercy.

It's God who seats us with Him

"so that in the coming ages," verse 2:7,

"He (God the Father) might show

the immeasurable riches
of His grace in kindness

toward us in Christ Jesus."

Verse 10, "We are His workmanship,

created in Christ Jesus for good works

which He prepared beforehand

that we should walk in them."

What I want you to get a feeling for

is you do not want to forget Him,

and I think that even in our
song selections in this church -

I went through our song list today.

It is hard to find songs
that are about the Father.

Very hard - I mean in our song list.

Why is that?

Well, look, there is a reason

that we look to the cross.

There's a reason we want
to preach the cross.

There's a reason that
we want to think about

the redemption that
we have in Jesus Christ,

but you know what you
don't want to forget?

You don't want to forget
that Jesus taught us

that when we pray,
we should pray this way:

"Our Father, who art in Heaven..."

We should look to God.

God the Father is the One before whom

Paul is bending his knee.

And you remember, it
is the riches of His glory.

He is the one that gives
these spiritual blessings

in the heavenly places.

He chose us in Christ

before the foundation of the world.

He adopted us as sons in Christ Jesus.

It is Him. It is His love.

But God, being rich in mercy,

because of the great love
with which He loved us,

He raised us up with Christ.

He seated us with Christ.

It is His blessings that are poured out.

It is not by our works,

it is the gift of God that we are saved,

by grace, through faith.

Remember this.

The Father - the part
that He plays in this.

It is the Father who so loved the world,

that He gave us His only begotten Son.

We don't want to forget the Father.

It is His plan. It is His purpose.

According to His purpose -

how often do you see that in this book?

The Father.

The Father.

Listen, do you know?

Some of you have heard this.

Every single time

that the Lord Jesus Christ addressed God,

He called Him Father.

Every single time.

Now there were times that He talked

to other people about God

and He called Him God.

My Father, My God; your Father, your God.

Or, that's probably backwards,

but there are times He used that language.

But when He addressed His Father in prayer

He called Him "Father"

every single time, except -

do you know when the exception was?

On the cross.

During the hours of darkness,

"My God, My God, why
have You forsaken Me?"

Quoting right out of Psalm 22.

What's my point?

Sometimes I sit in the prayer meetings,

and I will hear a brother or a sister -

usually it's brothers -

and they pray and they call our Father,

they call Him "God" almost exclusively

or the majority of the time.

And I wonder why.

Why?

Brethren, you've received
the Spirit of adoption

by which we cry what?

"Abba, Father."

It's beyond me why Christians want to pray

and consistently call God "God."

We have a God who invites us

to call Him "Father."

In fact, He gave us a Spirit
that would compel us

to pray that way.

Don't be cold and distant
in addressing Him.

(Incomplete thought)

Listen, you're coming before one who says,

"I want you to call Me Father.

Why? Because I am your Father."

You think about a little
child coming to a Father,

how much more

will your heavenly Father give
good things to them that ask,

including the Spirit.

We're coming to Him

according to the riches of His glory

and He's your Father.

Now that is good news.

That bodes well for your prayer life.

Does it not?

What purpose does Paul
cry out to the Father?

To ask for a better car?

Husband? Wife? More money?

Look, I'm not saying you
can't pray for those things.

But I would have you notice this.

Paul doesn't pray for himself once here.

Not once.

None of those things.

Take notice.

Notice, Paul is praying,

but he's not praying for himself.

Brothers and sisters,

how desperately, desperately we need

men and women in the church like this.

Paul is interceding.

Interceding is what you call it

when you bow your knees to God

for the sake of others

and not for yourselves.

How we need intercessors in the church.

And I'm concerned!

I'm concerned.

When I got saved,

honestly, I hungered

to have time with the Lord.

The first three years
of my Christian life,

I was able outside of work,

and even times at work

during breaks and lunch -

I wasn't married.

I was able to give my life to
communion with the Lord.

And I moved down here to Texas,

lived with John Sytsma,

a very business oriented family.

And things were working at a pace

that I just felt like,

John was very much given to devotions

in the morning and before
the family got together.

And I like to walk in the evenings

and be out in the field

and away from the heat.

And John's schedule and mine

were a little bit different,

and I remember just panting after

having that time back.

And I recognized that I
needed to move separate

so that I could get back
into my own schedule.

And I longed for that.

And I guess my sense was that

well, that's how it
is with all Christians.

We don't live by bread alone,

but by every word that proceeds
from the mouth of God.

We want to abide in Christ

and we love walking with Him

and meeting with Him

and there's things to confess

and there's worship

and just getting to meditate before Him

and praying and interceding

for the sake of others.

I just assumed that.

And then I got married,

and my wife basically lived that way

day after day.

I guess my assumption has largely been:

well, of course, that's
how Christians live.

I am, I don't now,

I guess I'm kind of baffled

by the frequency at which I hear

that people in this church

have a real difficult time maintaining

just a consistent intimacy with the Lord.

And I guess my concern is this,

I'm not sure what lies
behind this difficulty.

Is it immaturity?

Is it worldliness?

Is it busyness?

Is it just that there's no hunger there?

I know this,

intercessors don't come

from marginally spiritual people.

Why?

Because interceding requires love

and a level of maturity

and a lack of selfishness.

Selfish people -

their prayers are all about themselves.

Very little worship.

Very little confession.

But a lot of give me,
give me, give me, give me.

Now I know there are prayer
warriors in this church.

I know there are.

I know there are some of you,

your walk is close to the Lord.

I want there to be more.

I want this to characterize
the church as a whole.

Intercessors.

We desperately, desperately need this.

And if people can barely manage

to find their way into the
secret place of prayer each day,

I know this,

you're not interceding for anybody.

It's not happening.

Where do intercessors come from?

They come from people that live

in the presence of God.

You think about it.

Paul - you can imagine
the guard walking by.

The guards talking to each other,

"What's the guy doing in there?

Every time we walk by
there, he's on his face."

He wasn't idle.
He wasn't wasting his time.

He wasn't wasting his time in prison.

He was crying; he was bending his knee.

He was pleading, he was crying out

for the sake of others.

You find in just about every
single one of his epistles,

he cried out for people;

he called upon them.

Where do intercessors come from?

People who don't live by bread alone.

People who are desperate.

People who are abiding in the Lord.

People who are talking to Him

and walking with Him.

Now where does it come from?

That somebody says, "for this reason"?

I know them to be a Christian.

For that reason, I'm on my knees for them.

They're beloved of God.

Something is released in my heart.

I need to pray for them.

I'm thinking about other
people all the time.

I'm thinking about their needs.

I'm thinking about them glorifying God.

Where do intercessors come from?

Intercessors - not
marginally spiritual people.

You know, if we don't have intercession

happening commonplace in your life -

I'm not just talking about in the church.

If intercession is not happening

as a commonplace thing in your life,

one of the great manifestations

of sacrificial love is missing.

And listen, that's important.

Sacrificial love. You
think about Judgment Day.

Jesus talks about what you did for others.

"I was in prison, and you visited Me."

You know, one of the ways you can visit

people in prison is by praying.

The thing is as long as
you have life and breath

and you have consciousness,
you can pray for people.

We need it.

We need this desperately.

Where are the men and women?

I know we've got some. I know.

But oh God, help us to have more

men and women who live
in the presence of God

on bended knee

whose voices are familiar to the Father;

whose voices go up

in familiarity to the Father

on the behalf of others.

I mean, you can imagine,

God from God's perspective,

"There's his voice again...

and sure enough, he's asking for a job,

he's asking for a wife,

he's asking for a raise, he's asking..."

Those who God hears his voice,

"Lord, help so-and-so...

Lord, according to the
riches of Your glory,

please strengthen that brother

down there in Mexico.

Please, Lord, open that
door for that brother

that's trying to get from Costa Rica.

Lord..."

How often is the Lord hearing that voice?

"Lord, I'm not here to
pray for my own needs.

You know I have them,

but Lord, Brother Matt
needs Your help today.

He needs Your help.

Johannes, Lord, remember Johannes."

Those who can't sit
comfortably reading the book

or fiddling with their phone

because they're feeling a burden

for Andy and Rebecca.

Those of you that weren't
here on Wednesday,

Trevor Johnson wrote, I think,

one of the most powerful
missionary letters

that he's ever written.

Men and women not constantly asking

for their own needs.

The church needs intercessors.

We desperately need them.

Why?

Because God answers prayer!

Listen, I'm telling you this.

I know this for a fact.

I'm so convinced.

I've seen it over and over and over again.

God answers prayer.

And when people are praying for you,

things happen in your life
that would not happen

if they weren't praying for you.

Mark it down!

The elders in this church preach

or perform or oversee better

when people are praying for them

than when they're not praying for them.

That is a reality.

People live more holy lives.

People live closer to God.

People are more prayerful.

People are more loving and charitable

and kind and tender and forgiving

when people are praying for one another

than when they're not
praying for one another.

That is a fact.

I'll tell you, I was thinking about

our brother coming here
on a week from Wednesday

and sharing his needs.

If I was on a foreign mission field,

I would want to visit as
many churches as I could,

and I would tell the people,
look, I'm not here for your money.

I'm just appealing, if there is one person

or two people or three
people in this church

that are prayer warriors

and you have any burden for India,

I plead with you, pray.

And if on Judgment Day, it can be found

there were three people
in that church over there,

and there were two people
in that church over there,

and five in that church over there,
and they held that rope.

Not because they were sending
me all their dollars all the time,

but they prayed for me.

They prayed for me all the time.

Prayer meetings did not
go by in that church

they weren't praying for me.

And oftentimes, every
single day of the week,

they were holding me up.

We need this.

When we pray for one another,

I'm telling you, we end up doing things

that would not happen

if people weren't praying for us.

This is the reality.

Bending our knees to the Father

on behalf of others.

We are the priesthood, brethren.

Have you never read that?

That fire was not to go out on that altar.

And if that was the symbol,

if that was the hyperbole,

if that was the metaphor,

we are the true priesthood.

Don't let the fire go out.

And I want to end with this.

This is one of the few places

in Scripture where
we are specifically told -

it's one of the few places
in the New Testament

where we are specifically
told the posture.

This is the only place, I believe,

that Paul tells us his posture in prayer.

And I just want us to think for a moment.

Paul bowed his knee.

We used to sing out at Community,

"Oh, come let us worship and bow down."

Anybody remember that one?

"Oh, come let us worship and bow down.

Let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker."

Worship. Worship.

Come, let us bow down.

You know what I find in Scripture?

I actually find that even though Paul

doesn't reference this
much but this one time

about his posture,

I find that posture in prayer

is something that is an interesting study.

You can go find men

who fell on their faces before God.

Do you remember two who often were found

falling on their faces?

Moses and Aaron.

And you know what's interesting
about those two guys?

They were falling on their faces

for others as well;

not for their own needs.

They weren't just falling on their faces

for the needs of others.

They were falling on their faces

that God wouldn't destroy others.

Repeatedly, they were on their faces.

Remember Joshua - he came face-to-face

with the Angel of the Lord?

He found himself on his face.

Luke's account of the leper

that came to Jesus Christ?

It's said that he fell on his face.

Why do people fall on their face?

You can't go any lower than that.

I mean, if you were trying
to go low before somebody,

there's no lower you can get.

We're not talking bended knee here.

We're talking totally

as low as you can go on your face.

Maybe your knees are bent,

maybe you're prostrate.

What is that a picture of?

Certainly, it's a picture of
extreme submission.

It's the lowest expressing unworthiness,

inadequacy.

You think about bowing the knee.

Come, let us worship and bow down.

Or what does Scripture say?

There is a day coming
when every knee shall bow.

God has given Jesus Christ a name

that is above every name,

so that at the name of Jesus,

every knee should bow

in heaven, on earth, under the earth,

and every tongue confess

that Jesus Christ is Lord

to the glory of the Father.

That is a picture of submission.

It's a picture of reverence,

worship, allegiance.

Kneeling. Bowing.

How about lifting up eyes?

I was just singing Psalm 5 the other day.

That was another one
we often used to sing.

"Oh Lord, in the morning,

will I direct my prayer unto Thee..."

And the way the KJV has it,

"and will look up."

You know, there's twice when Jesus prays,

and it said He looked up to heaven.

And you think about it.

The tax collector there in Luke 18

when he prayed, he wouldn't dare look up.

He looked down.

But Scripture also speaks about,

Psalm 123, "To you, I lift up my eyes,

O, You who are enthroned in the heavens."

(incomplete thought)

I just want us to think about our posture.

Why? Because I hope you don't run

into God's presence just careless

and without thought.

We should think. Think.

Who are you coming to?

We're coming before a King.

No carelessness. What did God say?

"I am a great King,
says the Lord of Hosts,

My name will be feared
among the nations."

I'll ltell you this, your posture -

we don't want to be legalistic -

but you know what posture often does?

It's an expression to the
attitude of your heart.

And people who just flippantly,

carelessly run into God's presence,

that's not good.

Scripture shows men on their face,

those bowing,

eyes raised up,

arms raised - have you ever read that

in 1 Timothy 2?

And you know what? It's interesting.

"With holy hands..."

That's interesting because
you find in Isaiah

that they lifted their hands,

but God said their hands

were covered with blood.

See, what does it mean
when you raise your hands?

It's a picture - holy hands. Clean.

It seems to have the idea of:

there's a clean slate.

I've confessed my sin.

I don't know of anything between.

I'm walking in this
righteousness of Christ

and in the power of His resurrection.

As far as I know, there's
nothing outstanding.

But I'll tell you this,

there are times I lay in bed

and I raise my arms

and I'm not thinking about

the cleanliness of my hands.

I'm just thinking,

like if I get done preaching
and I come down

and one of the little children comes up

and they're raising their hands.

What are you going to do?

Are there any of you who would
just swat those hands away?

No, you're going to pick the child up.

I mean if little James Luciano runs up

with his arms up, I'm not going to just

scowl at him and say, "what do you want?"

You grab the child. You pick them up.

And sometimes the raising of hands

is just trying to get as close to Him,

"Lord, I want more of You.

Just touch me.

Pick me up."

Or you think about sitting.

2 Samuel 7,

after God pronounced
all the blessings on David.

David went to the house of the Lord

and he sat and God spoke to Him.

Jehoshaphat - we find where he stood

in the assembly of Judah
when he was praying.

Standing - that's kind of like

if you stand before a dignitary,

that's a posture of boldness.

Sometimes it's more of a cultural thing.

In Romania, they stand -

sometimes we stand when
the Scriptures are read.

You know, when Kevin's here,
he'll have us all stand.

Or Chello had us all stand.

But you know in Romania,

I think they sit when they read Scripture,

but they stand when they pray.

Now they may not know why they do that

other than it's just traditional,

but I don't want us to do things

just because it's traditional, legalistic,

or any other thing.

But I want us to be thinking.

Don't be careless.

You're going before a great King.

Think.

Yes, we're children,

and we can go into His
presence immediately

when we need to.

And we can go in as
children before a Father.

But you know, fathers demand reverence.

Be reverent.

Be thoughtful.

Think about praying.

Think about your prayers.

Pray.

You know, how many children in the church

actually ever stumble upon parents

on their knees?

How many of you are bending your knees?

How many pray on your face?

I remember Whitefield.

Whitefield would pray on bended knee

and read his Bible,

have his Matthew Henry commetary open.

I'm not saying you have to do that.

But see, it comes from
an attitude of heart.

Pray. Pray.

I've been reading -

my wife went through my books

when I was in Ecuador,

and she took a bunch of them

she wants to take to Half Price,

and so I was looking at the
two-volume Cotton Mather,

"Great Works of Christ in America,"

and I thought, oh, you're taking those?

And so I grabbed them out

and I've been reading.

And I'm reading through
a section right now

on the last testimonies
of all sorts of people

who were being executed.

You know they put people
to death for adultery?

We were just talking about that

at the men's Grace House the other day.

They put people to death

for adultery in those days.

They put people to
death for bestiality,

and for murder, for witchcraft.

A woman was consulting with a demon

and they executed her.

And you know, I was reading

about all these different accounts,

and when they would take these people

to the gallows,

they would give them opportunity to speak,

and they had a lot of last words.

And you know what I found
again and again and again?

These people who were moments away

from facing God,
stepping out into eternity,

they said if only I would have
started that day in prayer,

they said, I think God would have kept me

from doing what I did.

Now look, aside from whether
they were lost or saved,

that's not really the issue,

but it's amazing how often -

I saw it over and over -

how often they attributed,

"Oh, if only I had sought God that day,

I would probably not have
slit my wife's throat,"

which is what one of them did in a rage.

And I just thought about that.

We have a God who answers prayer.

And I'm not talking about
just starting your day

by praying for yourself.

Oh, what things might you have avoided

during any given day,

if you would have started your day

on your knees before the Lord?

But brethren, how many
of your brothers and sisters

might not have done what they did

on any given day if you had

started your day by praying for them?

I hope there's enough care,

enough concern.

We need more of the heart of Paul

who unceasingly prayed for people.

He didn't see other churches

as competitors or something,

or people not to pray for.

We don't want to them blessed.

Everywhere where there was somebody

that God had bestowed His love on,

his heart, his affection went out there.

He made great sacrifices.

That's something, no matter
what your gifts are,

no matter where you are,

no matter what your condition,
no matter what your health,

no matter what your age,

you can pray for others.

You can pray.

Provided you have the Holy Spirit,

provided you're one of Christ's,

you have access

and you can pray for others.

We need intercessors.

This is my great appeal today.

Pray for others.

Pray. Pray. Pray.

Be as Paul was and pray big!

And pray according to
the riches of His glory.

Don't pray meager prayers.

Don't pray like He's an incompetent god

or a small god.

We have a great God.

You're coming before a great King.

Go before Him in reverence.

Go before Him on bended knees.

And lift up others.

Father, I pray that You would do this.

I pray, Lord, more, more,

more intercessors.

Give us a church of intercessors.

Lord, those who are already intercessors,

I pray for them.

Oh Father, You say when
we do things for others -

there it is in Isaiah 58 -

when we call, You'll say, "here I am."

And I pray for those who are intercessors.

They love others.

And they pour themselves out.

Lord, remember them in all of their needs.

Give us a church of intercessors.

Give us that.

Lord, I believe You have
to a great degree,

but more, more, more.

Encouarge, stir, stoke the fire of prayer;

the fire for intimacy;

the hunger - make Your children hungry

for communion with You;

hungry for intimacy;

hungry to show their love.

Lord, give us to love what You love,

and we know where You set Your love

on certain individuals,

You would have us to love
them as You love them.

And love for the brethren

is so characteristic of what it is

to be a child of God,

and I pray that that love would permeate -

the love of intercession.

Lord, forgive us for selfishness.

Lord, we know there's too much of it

in each one of us.

We pray that You'd kill it.

Kill it. Kill it.

We pray in Christ's name, Amen.