Intercession - The Power of Disciplemaking

Let's pray together. Lord, you are so good to us, and your faithfulness is. Is ever present. And we thank you, Lord, that we have been the recipients of the great faithfulness of our God in our lives. And tonight, we pray that as we once again have the opportunity to look into the perfect law of liberty, that our hearts should be challenged and we grow, we'd see the greatness of our God. And learn to follow you in humble submission. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. If you have your Bible, I would invite you to turn with me to the Gospel of John, the 17th chapter.

John chapter 17. Throughout the years of my ministry, whether it would be as a baseball coach on a college campus or a dean of students or a recruiter for a college or as a college pastor or an associate pastor at a church or even a senior pastor. I tried to, at a very early age, to develop a philosophy of ministry that would govern my lifestyle and how I would minister to people, no matter what environment I found myself in. And when I graduated from college, I decided that I would do something for myself personally that would guide me as I would minister in the lives of people.

For the rest of my life, it was in college that God had impressed upon my heart the need to preach the gospel and to be a teacher of the Word of God. I didn't know how I was going to do that, I didn't know where I was going to do that. And so I began first of all as a college pastor, before I became an associate pastor, before I became a senior pastor.

But there was something that would. Keep me going from week to week, and that was in my mind, there was something I wanted to see accomplished in the lives of people. And I made it my objective to motivate people. As best as I possibly could, in order that they might follow the foremost comm. In order that they might fulfill the final comm. That was my personal philosophy of ministry: that somehow I would be able to motivate people. To follow, to follow the foremost commandment. And you know what that is.

When the man came to Christ and said, Lord, what is the foremost commandment? And Jesus said, Well, it's to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind, and with all of your strength. And the second is as the first.

To love your neighbor as yourself. To somehow motivate people to love the Lord their God with all that they had. In order to do that, I had to teach them what the Bible said about God and who He was and what He was about and what He did. And that from that, they would learn. They would learn to fulfill the final commission, and that was to go into all the world and make disciples. Knowing this, that it's a mandate for us to make disciples. It's not an option. It's not something we can think about and say, well, let me pray about whether or not I want to make disciples.

Listen, if God commands something, you don't have to pray about it. You just got to do it. You got to obey, right? That's a simple thing. And yet I know, and you know, that it's a lot easier to do what God says when my heart is so enthralled with Him and so committed to Him and so in love with Him.

Right? So I need to do what God says when I am so in love with Him, He's all I think about. When I'm far from the Lord, it's a little bit more difficult for me to be obedient to Him. And so throughout my ministry, from when I was 22 years of age and I graduated from college. Until now, I'm 45 years of age for those of you who do not know, although I was going through the grocery line the other day and I was buying some pampers for my youngest son. And the lady at the grocery store sells, she said to, she said, Whoa, it is so nice for you to get up early and to buy diapers for your grandbaby.

She says, I have two grandbabies. How many do you have? And I said, I have seven of them. I wasn't going go into a long detailed explanation as to the fact that I wasn't a grandfather. I wasn't going to embarrass her. I was going to let her think that I was a grandfather. Okay? I mean, it's not a big deal. That has happened to me on several occasions. So I'm only 45 years of age. And yet, throughout my ministry, that has been my philosophy. This is what I want to do. Teach people to understand who God is, to learn to love Him with all their heart, so that they will do what God has said: to go into all the world and make disciples.

And that's why this series is so important because this is the second aspect of that philosophy of ministry.

This is what you're supposed to be doing. And that's why we're spending time teaching you what the Bible says about making disciples because this is what our life is to be about.

Teaching people to observe all that God has command them. And so we're taking some time on Wednesday nights to help you understand disciple making. We looked first of all at the prerequisite to disciple making.

And the prerequisite was very simple. God said, This is what you're supposed to do. He authorized us to go into the world and make disciples. In that prerequisite's important. From there, we move to look at what we call the purpose of disciple making, and that is to grow people complete in Christ that they might come to understand the God of the universe.

From there, we looked at the priority in disciple making, and that was to make sure we were prepared person that we might be able to choose the people God has for us. And tonight, we will look at the power in disciple making.

The power in disciple making. Because this is a spiritual ministry. It can only be accomplished through spiritual means. And the spiritual means God uses is prayer. And so intercession becomes. The p in disciple making. We need to understand what God says about that.

We need to understand what we're to pray about, how we're to pray. This feeds off of last week's message when we talked about there needed to be that needful intercession in my own personal preparation as I would spend time with God praying about who it is I would minister to. On top of that, I got to realize that my life needs to be filled with prayer. And so I want to teach you a little bit about prayer and how it's that power in your ministry. And how we need to be people of prayer. When I was in college, I traveled with a team that would go to different camps on the East Coast.

We would teach baseball clinics and soccer clinics and basketball clinics. At the same time, we would be counselors in these camps. I did it for three summers when I was in college. In the first summer I traveled, there was a young lady who went with us, and she was part of the nine-member team that we had, and she gave me this little poem that she had put in her Bible.

And she gave it to me one night after she had shared her testimony with the different students at the camp. And it says this: No man is greater than his prayer life. I asked for strength that I might achieve, and God made me weak that I might obey. I asked for health that I might do greater things. I was given grace that I might do better things. I asked for riches that I might be happy. I was given poverty that I might be wise. I asked for power that I might have the praise of men, and God gave weakness that I might feel the need of him.

I asked for all things that I might enjoy life, and God gave me life that I might enjoy all things. I received nothing that I asked for. All that I hoped for, my prayer, was answered. That good? You know, we tend to ask God for a lot of things, and we think they're good things. And God does things completely different. He says, Call upon me, and I will show you great and mighty things that thou knowest not. He wants to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ever ask or think. He wants to go way beyond our mindset and to teach us.

Who he is and what he wants to do. Prayer is so important. When we intercede on behalf of other people, we are doing a great and mighty work for God. I rec the time that Dr. Wilbur Chapman became the pastor of Wanam Church in Philadelphia. After his first sermon, an old gentleman met him in the front of the pulpit and he said these words: You are pretty young to be a pastor.

Of this great church, he said. We have always had older pastors. I'm afraid you won't succeed. But you preach the gospel, and I'm going to help you. All I can. Dr. Chapman looked at him and said to himself, This man is crazy. But the old gentleman continued. He said, I'm going to pray for you that you may have the Holy Spirit's power upon you. And two others have covenanted with me to pray for you. Dr. Chapman will relate the outcome. He said, I did not feel so bad when I learned that he was going to pray for me.

The three became ten. The ten became twenty, and the twenty became fifty, and the fifty became two hundred, who met before every service to pray. that the Holy Spirit might come upon me in another room. The eighteen elders knelt so close around me to pray that I could put up my hand and touch them on all sides. I always went into my pulpit feeling that I would have the anointing in answer to the prayers of 2 men. It was easy to preach. It was a joy. Anybody could preach with such conditions. And what was the result?

We received 1,100 into our church by conversion in three years. 600 of which were men. It was the fruit of the Holy Spirit in answer to the prayers of those men. I do not see how the average pastor, under average circumstances, preaches at all. Church members have much more to do than go to church as curious idle spectators to be amused and entertained. It is their business to pray mightily that the Holy Ghost will clothe the preacher with power and make his words. Like dynamite. I want to let you know that as I preach this evening, there's a group of people that pray.

Every Sunday morning, going to both services, there's a group of people that kneel down and pray, who intercede on your behalf before the throne of grace. Because they realize and understand that this is a spiritual ministry. Unless the Spirit of God works in the hearts and lives of people, nothing happens. And so that they're praying that God's word will not return void, and that God's word will prick the conscience of sinful men and sinful women and cause them to turn from their sin and follow God.

That's a great comfort. You ought to be comforted that that's happening. There was one theologian who said the church is potentially a powerful body. With the necessary arsenal at its disposal to change the moral character of the world. The fact that it is not doing so. Causes us to be painfully aware that its potential is not being realized. That which is possible is not being produced. For while possessing the dynamite of the gospel, the church has lost. Its explosiveness. As a result of this inaction, the church that would see or seize Excuse me, the church that the world sees as weak, tim, divided, and crawling instead of flying.

While it has material resources to convert the world, it is restricted by its stinginess and narrowness of vision. The explosiveness of the church is the prayers of the people. That's what sets the gospel on fire. And that's why our God tells us men ought always to pray and not faint. You have one or two conclusions: you can pray or you can faint. The choice is yours. He says men ought always to pray. And so, as we look this evening at the power in disciple making, we are going to challenge you. To examine your life in terms of how you commit to praying for those people that God has entrusted into your service, into your ministry.

Whether you're a parent or whether you're a Sunday school teacher or whether you're discipling one or two people here or one or two people there, whether you teach a Bible study, no matter what it is you're doing, God has called you to invest your life. And the gospel in the lives of people. And the way that happens the fullest is through interceding. On their behalf. And sometime between the Last Supper and the agony in the garden, our Lord took time out to pray with his disciples. And that beloved disciple of Christ, the Apostle John, would record verbatim the words of our Lord that even.

And that high priestly prayer in John 17 has much to teach us about our prayer life. And so, hopefully, you're there. You have turned in your Bible to John chapter 17. It is so important. Listen very carefully. If you leave with one verse, leave with 1 Samuel 12, 23. God forbid that I should sin against the Lord. In ceasing to pray for you. Do you know that if you don't pray for your pastor, you're sinning against the Lord? Do you know that if your pastor does not pray for you, he is sinning against the Lord?

Do you know that as a husband, you don't pray for your wife, or as a wife, you don't pray for your husband, and as parents, you don't pray for your children You are sinning against the Lord. You see, we need to understand the importance of prayer and how it works and how God wants to use prayer in our lives and how we are to be praying for those people that God has entrusted to us. And I don't know who they are for you. I know who they are for me. I know my seven children. I know my wife. I know the elders in this.

Church. I know the staff that God's entrusted to me, and I know the people that occupy these pews week in and week out. And I know what my responsibility is. And if I don't pray for you, and I don't pray for your families, then I am sinning against my God. I know that. And that's my responsibility. And that's why the apostle said in Acts 6, verse number 4, that they have committed themselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word of God. And that's what the elders of this church are committed to: to praying for the people of God and to ministering God's word to them.

That's what our responsibility is. And that's what we plan to do. It's important. That we spend our time on our knees. You know, it's not a very popular ministry, nobody sees you. It's easy to do the ministry where everybody sees you, right? People notice you.

But when you go to prayer in your closet, In your house, in your study, and nobody sees you, there's no recognition for that, right? And that's one of the reasons we have a hard time doing it. If we knew that there were TV cameras outside and people were watching us, boy, we'd be on our knees and we'd be praying and we'd be sweating. We wouldn't get off our knees for hours on end because we knew people were watching. What are they going to think of me now? But you know what? It's hard when no one's looking, isn't it?

That's just between you and God. It's just you and the Lord. That's it. God's watching. He knows. He sees. He hears. That's why our Lord said, When you pray, don't do it like the heathens do it. Boy, they blow the trumpets, man. They do everything they can to get the attention of man. He said, but when you pray, you go into your closet and you close the door, and your father who sees and seeks will reward you openly. He's stand, listen.

Whether you're praying publicly or whether you're praying privately, the issue is it's you and God. No matter who's on the outside, you be concerned about what you're talking to God about. And so tonight. I want to look at three things with you.

Number one, I want to examine the content of prayer. I want to tell you what you need to pray about for your children, for your wife, for your husband. For those you disciple, for those you nurture. And the reason I keep drawing that parallel is because the church is like a family. And in your family, you need to be ministering to those that God's entrusted to you. That's a responsibility. And we need to be doing that as husbands, as wives, with our children. Same way it is in the church. The church is the family of God.

As we minister to people, I don't care if you're in the nursery holding babies. I don care if you're teaching two and three-year-olds. I don't care if you teaching high school students, young collegians, singles, whatever you're teaching. God has called you to pray for those people. I want to tell you what the Bible says about what you need to pray for them about.

So we want to examine the contents of prayer. And then we want to explain some of the conflicts that we face in prayer. And then we want you to enjoy the conquest. Prayer. That's where we're going this evening. Okay? First of all, the contents of prayer.

Now, I want you to know that our Lord lives to make intercession for you. Hebrews 7:2. He lives to intercede on your behalf. Romans 8:3 says the same thing: that he is constantly interceding for us. And remember in Mark chapter 6, when. When the Lord sent the disciples out into the boat, he him went up to the mountain to pray, and he prayed for his men that night. That was important. On this night in John 17, he gathers his men around and he begins to pray for them. And you can learn a lot about prayer just by listening to our Lord pray with his men around them.

For instance, Listen to what he says. He says in verse number 6 of John 17, I manifested thy name to the man whom thou gavest me out of the world. Thine they were, and thou gavest unto me, and they have kept thy word. Now they have come to know that everything thou hast given me is from thee. And the words which thou gavest me, I have given to them. And they received them and truly understood that I came forth from thee. And they believed that thou didst send me. Now think about that and draw an application to your life and gathering your children around, gathering your family around and saying, Lord, I have manifested your name to my children.

Think about that. Can you say that with a clear conscience? Would your children who are listening say, yes, my Father has manifested his Father in heaven to us? You see, you need to be able to pray like that with your kids. Lord, I thank you that I have the opportunity to impart your word, your truth, to those that you have given me out of this world. Can you say that with your family? Can you honestly kneel before God and say it with a clear conscience? Jesus could do that. And that leads me to this.

If people are having a hard time following your leadership, if people are not receiving what you are saying. If people don't believe what you are saying, you have to ask yourself this question: Am I accurately manifesting the Father to them? You see, Jesus says, because I manifested you to them, they now keep your word.

They now belie in you. Drawing the parallel that says if we are not manifesting the Father to those that God has given to us, those people we are discipling, maybe it's because they're not believing what we're saying, maybe it's because we're not accurately presenting our Father in heaven to them. Think about it. That might not always be the case, but it's food for thought. It's something we need to go back and examine our lives about, right? I do it all the time. When my children are disobedient, when I'm having struggles with my wife, the people that are closest to me, I got to go back and say, Lord, where am I not revealing you to them?

Where have I dropped the ball? Where have I not been faithful? Now it could be that I have been and they're just rebellious. That happens. But usually, nine times out of ten There is something in my life that's hindering my leadership ability with my children or with my wife. You translate that over to the people you're discipling and ask yourself this question: Are the people that I am teaching, that I am training, that I am investing my life into, are they following the Lord? If not, maybe it's because I'm not accurately manifesting the Lord to them.

It's food for thought. It's something you've got to think about. Jesus could say that. In verses 9 to 10, you, we're not going to cover the whole chapter tonight because we don't have time to do that. But he says, I ask on their behalf. I did not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom Thou hast given me, for they are thine. You know, Jesus didn't pray for the world. In fact, the only time he prayed for the unbelieving world was on the cross. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

He prayed for his men. He would intercede on behalf of his men. Why? Because they were his property, for lack of a better word. They are my own. You've given to me, given them to me. And because they are mine, I intercede on their behalf. And I want to give you four main essentials that will help you understand the content of your prayer life for those people you invest your life into. There are four. There's more, but there are four in this text. And there are four that Jesus prayed for. And these four need to be in your prayer life.

If you want to know how to intercede on behalf of your children, if you want to know how to intercede on behalf of your spouse. If you want to know how to intercede on behalf of those people that God has called you to invest your life into, there are four things you must cover in your prayer life. Number one is this.

Oh, by the way. Oh, by the way, outside the fact that it's so hot in here, it's important to note that Jesus never prayed. That they would escape from anything, but they would always triumph through everything. Isn't that good? You know, we want God to take us out of our situation. Oh, God, get me out of here. Oh, Lord, if you just come now, take me quickly, get me out of this place, I'll forever follow you. You know what? God doesn't want to take you out of it, He wants to see you through it. He wants you to be a victor.

He wants you to be a conqueror. He wants you to triumphantly walk through it. So he's going to take you through it. We don't like that very much. We'd rather just be removed from the negative circumstances. Be removed from the problem, or Lord, remove the problem. But we'll see in a few moments that you know what? Prayer more is about changing me than it is about changing somebody else. Did you know that? See, we're always praying that God will change them. Change my kids. Change my pastor. Change the people in my church.

Change them, God. Help them see my way, Lord. I know my way is right. So, Lord, help them see my way. We want them to see it our way. And all the while, in our prayer life, we realize that God is in the process of changing me. He wants to change you. As you pray. Boy, once you grasp that, your prayer life is going to be revolutionized. You will note that we pray for all kinds of things, we pray for Somebody getting a job, what you need to pray for. We pray for somebody who's going to go into the hospital, what you need to pray for.

We pray for who we're going to marry, when we're going to marry. Things you need to pray for. The Bible says, cast all your cares upon the Lord, for He cares for you.

So we should pray about all those things. But what Jesus prays for for his men is so important that it gives us A firm foundation on our prayer life when it comes to knowing what to pray for for those people that we inv our lives into. You with me so far? Good. In spite of the fact that it's so hot in here, you're still with me. Good. Number one is this: he prayed for their unity.

Verses 11 and 12. He says, and I am no more in the world, and yet they themselves are in the world. And I come to thee, Holy Father. Keep them in thy name, the name which Thou hast given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I was keeping them in thy name, which thou hast given me. And I guarded them, and not one of them perished, but the son of perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled. He prays for their unity. He prays for their oneness. And what does he say?

I want them to be one as we, Lord God, are one. Now think about that. Think about that. That is complete unity. How is the Son one with the Father? And how is the Father one with the Son? Number one, their love is uncond.

Number two, no sin. That's the essence of oneness. There's no sin between God the Father and God the Son. There's no sin in them. They are light. There's no darkness in them at all. And the love they have for one another is completely uncond. Now, if we're going to be one as God the Father is one with God the Son, that means we are praying for what? That we would love one another uncond and that we would live a life without sin. Now, let me tell you something.

That's what you need to pray for people about. Right? Oh, that is so important. You see, God wants us to be one because you see, we are the composite picture of Christ to a lost world. And so, when you're praying for those people you're investing your life into, you're praying that they would be one. They would be one with the Father and with the Son, as the Father and the Son are one together. And therefore, you are praying for their purity and their holiness. You are praying that their lives will be separate from the world.

You know, the Bible says in 2 Corinthians chapter 6, verse number 14, 15, 16, 17, talks about our separation from the world, that we're not to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers.

That's so important. Let me illustrate this way for you. Let's say you're in the process of nurturing and discipl your children, which you should be doing, right? And your child comes home and they're at that age where they want to begin to date. And they come home and, You know, I got this friend I want to be with. And the very first question you should ask is, Do they know the Lord?

Because if they don't know the Lord, there is no discussion. No discussion. But you know what? I have found that most parents never ask that question. If she's cute, she's nice, she comes from good stock, sure, that's okay. You're just in high school, it's not a big deal. Let me tell you something, it's a big deal.

It's a big deal. Why? Because that little dating excursion can lead to an infatuation, which can lead to a marriage and being unequally yoked together. And the Bible demands that that not happen. That's so important. You see, we want to do this missionary dating kind of thing. You know what I'm saying? You know, if I date him and I can win him to the Lord, you, I tried that when I was in high school. You know, and I had this girl that I wanted to date. My parents said no, and I thought, well, man, she likes me, I like her.

This could work out. So I decided to. To do some missionary dating and thinking that if I could just get together with her and share Christ with her, she'd come to the Lord. And sure enough, I shared Christ with her, and she prayed the sinner's prayer. I came home and said, Hey, guess what, mom and dad? She's saved. And mom, No, she's not. I said, yes, she is. She prayed the sinner's prayer. She says, Listen, any, anybody you dated. And had any kind of hankling or hankling for you, they'd pray this to this prayer.

I mean, you're a good athlete, you're a handsome kid. Sure, they're going to pray this in his prayer. Who wouldn pray this in his prayer to spend a few days with you? I said, Mom, you're crazy. Except for the part about being a good athlete and being handsome, you're right about that. But the bottom line being is that, you know, we tend to think that we can win someone over, and what we're winning that person over to is our own personal affection. If they like you, they'll do anything for you. You got to be careful.

You see, God had strict rules for the nation of Israel. He told them how to dress. He told them how to eat. He told them what to eat. He told them when to eat. He told them when to worship. He told them how to worship. And you read the Old Touch, think, oh, wow, man, I'm so glad I didn't live back then. How can I keep all those laws? How can I do all those rituals? How can I ever make it happen? You know why God did that? He did that for one very simple reason. He says, You are different than everybody else.

And whenever you try to look and be like everybody else, you're going be in trouble. And you know what? Every time Israel tried to look and be like everybody else, They were defeated. They had problems. But whenever they did what God said and were completely different, guess what? They succeeded. God honored them. God blessed their nation. You know, we need to be different than the world. Right? And we need to be so one with God the Father that we are in no way ever even linked to the world. But we find ourselves wanting to be one with the world.

Why? It's all passing away, it's all going to burn up. And God wants us one with Him. And so we're praying for the unity of that individual with God the Father. Wow, that's a great prayer. That's a great prayer. Boy, I got so much I want to say about that. I remember I was pastoring not at this church, it was my previous church, and I just got there. And we had started into the holiday season, and my daughter came home at the time, and she came home having colored a picture. She says, Dad, I want to show you what I colored in Sunday school.

I said, sure, what you got? She says, look, I colored Santa and his reindeer. And I said, in Sunday school? She said, yeah. I said, where'd you go to church this morning? Know what she said? Your church. Come Monday morning, guess what? Things changed. Things changed. Having just been new to that church and just getting off the ground, there were a lot of things that needed to be changed. Didn't know anything about that one. But when our kids go to Sunday school, they want to color pictures about Jesus and Jesus in the manger and the wise men, that kind of stuff, that's great.

But not about S Cl and reindeer. We don't teach that to church. We're to be completely different than the world. We're to be seeking to be one with God, not one with the world. That's so important. And so you're praying for that for your people. Number two, not only their unity, but their joy.

Look at verse number 13. But now I come to thee, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy made full in themselves. I have given them thy word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world. Even as I am not of the world, I do not ask. Thee to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. The point being is that God says, I am praying that they might have my joy.

My joy. Now, understand this: we want our disciples, we want our children, we want those that we're investing our lives into and the Word of God into to experience fullness of joy, right? And the joy that Jesus says he's having, he says, Lord, I want them to have my joy.

Now, this is the eve of the crucifixion. He's going to die for the sins of the world. But he is verbalizing the fact that in his heart, in his soul, there is joy. There's a tranquil spirit. There is peace. There is contentment. And my friend, that's what everybody needs to have. And you've got to be praying for your people that way. You got to be praying that they experience the joy of the Lord. And that joy is that inner contentment that comes. From knowing the love of God. You see, the reason Jesus had that love is because He was so one with the Father.

He knew that the love for the Father for the Son was so uncond that the Father did what was best for the Son. And our joy and our contentment comes in our life when we know that God the Father loves us so much that what happens to me is happening because my Father loves me more than anybody else can or anybody else will. And he will see me through it. He will take me through it. Folks, everybody needs that kind of contentment. Everybody needs that kind of joy. And that can only come through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

And that's what Jesus would pray for. He knew that his father loved him more than anything. When my first wife died, and I was asking many questions of the Lord, I realized, I realized, at that time.

That God loved me more than anyone else ever could. And that God had a plan for my life that went beyond anything I can ever imagine because He loves me. And in spite of the difficulty that I went through as a father with an only child and trying to understand all the hows and whys, and then trying to explain to all these college students who said, You know, if you love the Lord, you prayed for the health of your wife and she wasn't healed. What's your problem? How come she wasn't healed? And having to answer all those questions to all these college students.

As a college pastor, I began to realize that it was about my relationship with the Lord and what God wanted to teach me and what God wanted to stretch in me to make me the man He wanted me to be. And God cared more about me than He did anything else at that time. And I believe that. And it would get me through a very difficult period, understanding that God had something special for me. And I believe that. And through the death of my first wife, God revolutionized my walk with him.

Revolutionized my walk with him. That without that, it probably never would have happened. But God takes those things and teaches you and trains you. And helps you understand the real, true joy of the Lord. So, next time you find yourself going through a difficulty, next time you find yourself having a hardship, Don't ask God to throw you out of it, to escape from it. Ask God to help you become an overwhelming conqueror through it. That you might understand his plan for your life, that you might be better equipped to minister to other people for the glory of Almighty God.

He prayed for their unity. He prayed for their joy. He prayed for their security. Their security. Verses 15 and 16. I did not ask thee to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Listen, Jesus is completely separate from the world. He's saying, These men are not of the world. And so I am asking not to take them out of the world. Not to isolate them. I'm praying that you insulate them, that you protect them, that you keep them secure.

Isn't it good to know that Jesus would pray for our security? That we would be protected. And that's the way we should pray for the people that we are discipling: that God, you'd protect them as we get ready to embark on a new fall, and your students are going to go off to. to high school, to junior high school, to elementary school, to college. We are praying that God will protect them. Remember as Hosea prayed for Gomer, that God would put a hedge of thorns of protection around her? That's what we need to be praying for our children.

A hedge of thorns of protection around them. That God, you wouldn't take them out of the world, but Lord, that you would insulate them and use them to be a testimony in the world because they're not of the world. Jesus Christ him is not of the world. Completely separate. Completely different. But while they're in the world, they're here for a purpose. And Lord, help them understand that purpose. But protect them. And that's what we need to pray, right? As a wife, you pray for your husband as he goes off to work in the morning.

Lord, protect him from the evil one, secure him, keep him safe. Don't let the world infiltrate his mind, his thinking. Keep him pure. Keep him holy. Keep him on the straight and narrow. Every husband needs a wife who prays for him like that. And lastly, he prays for their purity. He says in verse number 17, sanctify them in the truth. Thy word is truth. As thou didst send me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes, I sanctify myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in.

Truth. I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. Even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that thou didst send me. How is the world going to believe that God the Father sent God the Son? Because we have a group of people who understand their unity in Christ. Who understand the joy in the Lord, who understand that they are secure in Him, and understand that they are to be pure before Him.

Pray for their purity. Sanctify them. Set them apart in truth. Thy word is truth. And so that's why we are teaching them the Word of God. We are investing God's Word in the people. We are memorizing the Word of God. We are studying the Bible. Why? Because how can a young man keep his way pure but by taking heed to the Word of God? That's the only way. And so we pray for their purity, their holiness in the world. Wow. Think about that. Those four things ought to characterize your prayer for those that you intercede for at the throne of grace.

And can you imagine what would happen? In the life of those closest to you, if those four things occupied your prayer journal, and watch and see how God works. Point number two is important because there's going to come many conflicts.

So, I'm going to explain to you the conflicts in prayer. There are many of them. I just want to give you four of them this evening. Why is it we don't pray for these things? Or why is my prayer life as weak as it is? Why is it I just can't find myself on my knees before the throne of grace on a regular basis? Why is it when the Bible says, pray without ceasing?

I think to myself, I don't want to do that. Why is it I find it so difficult? Let me give you four things.

Number one: is the enemy. It's the enemy. Ephesians 6 is very clear on this. The very end of. Ephesians chapter 6, as Paul has just talked about the believer's spiritual armor, he says these words in verse number 18: With all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the Spirit. And with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints. And pray on my behalf that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel.

for which I am an ambassador in change, that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. Paul's con Was that prayer not be added to the spiritual armor, but that prayer be woven in and through each and every piece of the armor? Because we are wrestling not against flesh and blood. And it's a spiritual battle. There's a spiritual battle going on, and that spiritual battle can only be fought on your knees. And that's why we need to understand that the enemy does all he can to keep you off your knees, keep you from going to the throne of grace.

Why? Because he doesn't want you to talk to God about The problems you're having. He doesn't want you to talk to God about your spouse or about the people. Your discipling. He doesn't want you to talk to God about the purity of these people. He doesn't want you to talk to God about these people experiencing joy in the Lord. He doesn't want you talking to God the Father about the tranquility and peace in their lives. He doesn't want these people to be one. With the Father. And he knows that if you drop to your knees and begin to pray for these things to happen, that they're going to happen because they're what God said in His W.

So he does all he can to keep you off your knees. All the distractions come your way. The phone rings. Someone says they got to see you. All kinds of things begin to take priority in your life. You've got to get this done. You've got to get that done. Oh, you're too tired. He brings everything your way to keep you from praying. Next time you say, Oh, you know how to be praying, how to get up and pray and commit these people to the Lord. I don't want to do that today. I'll do it tomorrow. I'll set the alarm for five.

No, I'll set it for six. I don't want to get up at five tomorrow morning. Satan's saying, you know what? Just put it off the next day. You see, Satan's biggest ploy is procrastination. Just you do it tomorrow. You begin your walk with God tomorrow. You'll begin your prayer life with God tomorrow. You'll begin atte Procrastination. Because he knows if you put it off one week or one day, you put it off another day. You'll put it off another week. Had that spiritual battle. The enemy, number two, the energy.

The energy. We find ourselves pray without ceasing, pray with all perseverance, as Paul says. What do you mean, pray without ceasing? I don want to do that. And Christ says, men ought always to pray and not to faint.

And he says in Luke chapter 18, there was a certain city. A judge who did not fear God and did not respect man. And there was a widow in that city, and she kept coming to him saying, Give me legal protection from my opponent. And for a while he was unwilling. But afterward he said to himself, Even though I do not fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection, lest by continually coming she wear me out. She's wearing me out. She keeps coming to my door.

She keeps coming to me right after I get other chambers. Make my unjust situation right. I'm tired of hearing the lady. I'm going to make it right. Point being is, God's not like the unjust judge because He's just. And when His children come to Him and plead to Him, He listens, He hears. He wants to do the right thing because he's our God. Over in Luke chapter 11, remember Luke 11 is where the disciples ask Christ to teach them how to pray. And so he teaches them. And as soon as he's done teaching them how to pray, listen to what he says.

You know, the disciples' prayer you know what the disciples' prayer is. As soon as he's done, he says this: Suppose one of you shall have a friend and shall go to him at midnight and say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves. For a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him. And from inside he shall answer and say, Do not bother me. The door has already been shut, and my children and I are in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything. I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence.

He will get up and give him as much as he needs. And I say to you: ask, and it should be given to you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened to you. For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it shall be opened. Now supp one of your fathers is asked by a son for a fish. He will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? Or if he asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he? If you then Being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?

The point being, Christ says, You keep asking, you keep seeking, you keep knocking. Why? Because I want to know whether or not you truly believe in what I say. I want to know if you're committed to coming to me and talking to me. And most of us just don't have the energy. We ask God for something, He doesn't answer. So, you know, I not going ask Him again. I'm tired of asking Him. He doesn't want to hear from me again. I asked every day last week. I'm done asking. That's not persistence. Back in Luke 18, Christ asked this question, will he find this kind of faith on the earth when he returns?

Speaking of that woman who would go to the unjust judge and keep badgering that man until she got what she wanted. Christ says, when the Son of Man returns, is that the kind of faith he's going to find?

People that are committed to doing and believing what God says, that they will constantly beseech the throne of grace for answers.

But for the most part, we pray about something, it doesn't happen, we're too busy. We don't have the energy to keep on praying about the same old thing. And that's why in Luke chapter 11, Christ talks about persistence in prayer. Because prayer is hard work. You've got to keep asking, you've got to keep seeking, and you've got to keep knocking. You just can't ask once. Knock once. Hello. When you want somebody and you know they're in the house, what do you do? Man, you're banging that door. You don't stop knocking.

You're ringing the door. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, d No, no, no, no, no, no, you in there. Get out of here. And God says, you've got to stick to it.

But for the most part, a lot of us don't have the energy. And that's one of the conflicts we face. Another one's our ego. We got big egos. We got big egos. So much so, Luke 18 gives a parable, and I won't go into this because we've already done a series of the parables, about the Pharisee who would go up into the temple to pray. The Bible says he prayed to himself, not to God, but to himself.

I thank you, God, that I'm not like this tax collector. I'm not like other people. You see, we think we're better than others, and we got this big ego. And James says. In James 4, you have not because you don't ask. And why don't you ask? Because we think we can do it ourselves. We think we can make our children the right way. We think we can make our spouse the right way. We think we can make our disciples the right way. So we don't even ask God about it. We think we can mold them and shape them into what we want them to be.

So, why ask God? And all that is is arrogance. And the ego, the ego kills you. I wish I had time to go further into that, but let me give the last one.

And that is this: the expectancy. We just don't expect God to answer. Acts 12 is a scripture reference. Peter's in prison. And there's a group of people having a prayer meeting. Praying that Peter would be released from prison. And through a series of miraculous events, Peter's released. He goes to the door. They go to the door. Who's there? It's Peter. No. Yeah? It's Peter. Let me in.

They open the little window. Sure enough, there's Peter. You know what they do? You shut the door. Boom! They go back and say, guess who's at the door? They said, who? Peter! No, we're praying for him. We're praying that he be released. He can't be at the door. He's in prison. And the Bible says that when the door was opened, they were astonished.

You know why? Because they didn't believe their prayer was going to work anyway. They didn't expect God to answer the prayer. They didn't expect Peter to be at the door. That's why they slammed the door in his face. That's why they refused to believe. And that's the way we are. We pray, and we just don't expect God to do anything. We just pray because the preacher, I got to pray. So we do. We don't really believe that prayer is going to do anything. So we just say a bunch of words. And that expectancy is one of the biggest conflicts we have in our prayer life.

Folks, let me tell you something. You got to expect God to work. You got to believe He's going to do what He says He's going to do. If you don't, why pray? Why waste your energy? God said, You pray. You call upon me, and I will show you great and many things that you know us not. Let me close with our final point about enjoying the conquest of prayer.

Number one is the defeating of the enemy. The defeating of the enemy. A great story in Luke chapter 19. If I had that time, I would love to go into this. It says, I'm sorry, Luke chapter 10. Luke chapter 10, verse number 17, it says, In the 7 re with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name. And he said, I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning. Behold, I have given you a th. Authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions and over all the powers of the enemy, and nothing shall injure you.

Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven. These people are coming back saying, Oh, God. You should see what's going on. And Jesus said, I know I saw Satan falling from heaven like lightning. I mean, great things were happening. And listen to this: the only time in the Bible. The only time in the Bible where Jesus expresses j. Here it is. Verse 21. At that very time, he rejoiced great in the Holy Spirit. He rejoiced.

You know why he rejoiced? Because his men were doing a great work. Because they were praying, and God was doing a tremendous work. And let me tell you something: when you are praying, guess what?

The enemy is defeated, and that is ca for rejoicing. Number two. Your disciple is developed. The developing of the disciple. He grows. Paul would pray in Colossians 1, verses 9 to 10, Philippians 1, 9 and 10. Ephesians 1, 18 and 19. Why? Because James 5:16 says, the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availe much. Remember back in Acts chapter 1, verse number 14, he had 120 people praying between the ascension and Pentecost. That's 10 days. He had 120 people praying for 10 days. Read Acts chapter 2.

Peter preaches. You know how long he preaches? 10 minutes. How many souls are saved? 3,000 souls are saved. 10 days of praying, 10 minutes of preaching, and 3,000 souls are saved. I Think we ought to adopt that. Think about that. These people's lives grew. Why? Because you had 120 people committed to talking to God about what the issues were. People's lives grow, develop, are transformed, change because you intercede on their behalf. Next comes the delighting of the soul. Psalm 138, verse number 3, says this.

On the day I called, Thou didst answer me. Thou didst make me bold with strength in my soul. I like that. When I called out to the Lord, he heard me. He answered me. You see, it's important to understand. That God hears. 1 John 5, verse number 14 says it this way. And this is the confidence which we have before him: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. God hears. He listens. He hears. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.

My friends, that's confidence in prayer. Asking according to the will of God, believing that what God says in His Word is true, and claiming the promises of His Word.

Now, God might delay His answer. He might not answer in your time. That answer might be delayed, right? John the Baptist, I mean, excuse me, Zacharias had prayed for years for a son, and God delayed the answer. You know, one day his wife was pregnant. And God delayed the answer because God didn't want to give him just a son. He wanted to give him the forerunner of the Messiah. But God answered. Sometimes God answers differently than we expect. Paul asked for his thorn of the flesh to be removed, and God said, No, I want it to remain.

Because in your weaknesses, you're going to be so strong, Paul, that he was. But know this: God hears. And when God hears, let me tell you something: that's the greatest delight to your soul.

Believing and knowing that my God hears every word I say. And lastly, You learn to discover the desire. A great desire happens in your heart and soul to pray more and more and more because it becomes the delight of your soul. Over in Psalm 119, it says in verse number 164, Seven times a day I praise thee because of thy righteous ordinances. Seven times a day, the continual praising of my God. Because I learned to delight in Him. I learned to commune with Him. It was Martin Luther who said, as it is the business of tailors to make clothes.

And of cobblers to mend shoes, so it is the business of the Christian to pray. The p in disciple making is to intercede on behalf of the people that God has given to you. I trust that God will enable us all. To commit to doing so. Let's pray. Father, we thank you, Lord, for tonight and all that you've done. We thank you for the opportunity to spend time in your word, and we thank you, most importantly, Lord, that you hear us when we call. Great confidence we have in you, Lord, because your word says that you're listening.

You hear and you respond. May all of us be deeply committed to doing the word of the Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.