The Power of Intercessory Prayer

Tonight's GTM speaker is Mr. Steve Durham, and he will be discussing the power of intercessory prayer and its significance in the Christian faith. Steve talks about the different types of prayer, including prayers of faith, request, thanksgiving, and worship. He also emphasizes the importance of having an intimate relationship with God and acknowledging His role in our lives. Mr. Durham also mentions how Abraham Lincoln turned to prayer during difficult times and how prayer is essential in our spiritual battle. Intercessory prayer is highlighted as an opportunity to reflect the character of Christ and continue His work by praying for others and bearing their burdens. Steve concludes by emphasizing that Christ is our intercessor and that through prayer, we can grow in our relationship with God and reflect His love for others. Welcome everyone to Dota Meeting 2, Friday night online fellowship meeting. It's my pleasure to be able to give you the message tonight in this quote, and it fits right in with the message tonight. It's from Abraham Lincoln. And Abraham Lincoln was a man for the hour. Certainly God had him picked, groomed for a time when this country needed someone like him. And he went through a lot of trials, a lot of difficulties in bringing the two factions together. So he said, I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. He went to God. Abraham Lincoln was a man that God used. He was not necessarily understanding the truth as we have, but he certainly was led by God in good times and normal times, in times of trouble and difficulty, which we have all experienced and will. We know we can go to our heavenly father in Jesus Christ for comfort and mercy, our provisions that he provides, blessings, promises, our needs, and to thank him and praise him for our life. And just to acknowledge his great plan for mankind and our part in it. Isn't that amazing what we understand? The family of God and our part in it. And he's preparing many sons for glory. And he's working with us. We're his workmanship. And Christ is our example. Passover is just around the corner, not too far away. And we talked last Sabbath about the overall purpose, coming at it from outside where you knew nothing about it. The overall purpose of Passover and what it means. Where did it start? Where did it start? Well, was it Genesis 15? Or maybe was it before that? Maybe it was from the foundation of the world. And maybe the sacrifice was planned from the foundation of the world, which makes everything different. It's for all men, not just Israel, not just the Jews. It's for all men. Christ is the only way to salvation. And so we talked about that last week and gained a little bit of understanding and a bigger, broader, wide sense of that purpose and the importance of Passover and Jesus Christ and his life, crucifixion, his death, his resurrection, and where he is now. Where is he now? Is he dead? Is he not working anymore? No. He's beside the Father as our high priest, our advocate, our mediator, and intercessor. That's what I want to talk about tonight. That role that he has and how it pertains to us. What is our part in that? We're to become like Christ. We have his Holy Spirit. We have his character through the Holy Spirit. And we are his workmanship, and we're to become like him. So I wanted to weave that into this message tonight. And as we know, let's look at the different tools that he gives us. There's prayer, Bible study, fasting, meditation. That's just the start. You have God's Holy Spirit, and you use those. So we know that prayer is critical in our relationship with God. You stop praying, and you're going to drink. You're going to be in trouble. You know, and Abraham Lincoln did this, too. He was on his knees on a regular basis through the Civil War. So it's paramount for us. So I want to speak about the power of intercessory prayer and have maybe an overview like we did with Passover and get a bigger view or a bigger understanding of intercessory prayer. What is it? Why do we do it? Or do we do it if we want to, or is it something that God the Father wants us to do? And it's critical. So let's look at what prayer is. I know this is going to sound basic, okay, but let's take it apart. Prayer is acknowledging the Father and Christ in heaven, having an intimate personal relationship with God and acknowledging him as these things that he does for us, creator, sustainer, answerer of prayer. He fulfills prophecy. We are able to speak to him that he speaks to us through his word. We praise him. We show him glory and worship him on a regular basis. We thank him for all that we have, everything, and all that we will have. And if you understand the scope of all that, that is mind-boggling. We were just this little spot, not even that, just a spot, and before the foundation of the world, he brought that to be. And at the end of the age of man, look at what we have to look forward to. It's an amazing, amazing mystery that we have. How does intercession come into that? How does that play into this? How does it play into the passover? How does intercession play into Jesus Christ? So, simply, prayer is a solemn request for help or an expression of thanks to God. We're praying to God and to Christ. And the only way we can get to the Father is through Jesus Christ. There's no other way. That's it. That's the way. Acts 4, 12, it's the only way. It says in James 5, 15, there are different kinds of prayer, okay? There's the prayer of faith. James 5, 15 will read that. And the prayer of faith shall save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. Okay. So, in this context, the prayer is offered in faith. All prayers should be that. For someone who's sick, asking God to heal that individual and his will to be done. And we pray, we believe in the power of that prayer and the power of God and the goodness of God and the mercy and the love and the compassion and the comfort. He says that all things, if you can believe, all things are possible to the one who believes. In Mark 9, 23, he says, and the father of a little child cried out at once and he said in tears, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. And that's a prayer that we all should pray. We should all ask. And that faith comes from Jesus Christ, that it can grow as we get out of the way and submit to him and yield to him. Now, there's another prayer. It's called the prayer of request or supplication. It's a little different. When we're to take our request to God, Philippians 4, 6. Philippians 4, 6 says, Do not be anxious about anything. Don't worry, don't doubt, don't fear. But in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. So we have prayer, supplication, we're thanking him, and we're asking him for something. And we need to have that belief that he will answer us and he hears us. But he will hear us, but he doesn't always answer. There are some prerequisites to that. So we're in a spiritual battle. We're here in a spiritual battle, and part of that winning of that battle is to be praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication. And we'll read that scripture later on. Because the spirit is important in interceding and true intercession. I mean, people in the world can intercede, you can do it, but it's the effective prayer of righteousness, as we talked about, comes from Christ through the Holy Spirit and through obedience and belief. It affects much. So supplication is a specific type of prayer that involves making a humble request or a plea for something. And it's often done in times of need or duress. It's a little bit more fluid, okay? And it is used to ask for help or intervention from God for him to intercede. It carries a sense of urgency and desperation or supplications. It's more intense. It's more focused than just a general prayer. Then there's the prayer of Thanksgiving. Another type of prayer in Philippians 4, 6. It says, Philippians 4, verse 6, we all know this section. With Thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. He wants you to ask. He wants you to come to him and ask for things. Be thankful. Be grateful. And be happy and positive and sure. And know that your Father is going to hear you. Now, again, it may not get an answer right away, but he has heard you. He is taking it. And in faith, those will be answered. Even the faith of healing. Maybe you're not healed. And maybe you pray and pray and pray, and someone dies. And you say, well, God, you didn't hear me. Well, you ask for that person to be healed. And when the resurrection comes, that body will be healed. And so he did answer. And it was time. The time was right. That was an appointed time for that individual. And it was better that he had worked everything out. He's the one that knows when it's time. And we need to believe that and love him and thank him for what he does. So there are many examples of thanksgiving prayers. And David has the Psalms are full of them. And then there's the prayer of worship. A prayer of worship is similar to the prayer of thanksgiving. The difference is that worship focuses on who God is. Thanksgiving focuses on what God has done. Worshiping who he is. Knowing him. Christ came to reveal the father. And knowing who the father is, we can worship him and thank him and praise him and really have a focus on who he is and what he does. What he has done is thanksgiving, gratitude, thank you. So there's another prayer, the one I want to talk about. And that's intercessory prayer. This one is more, it reflects the character of Christ in that Christ is our intercessor. He's our mediator and our advocate. And by us doing that, not only are we reflecting his character, we are continuing the work that he's doing. We are then, he is extending that to us. And we continue to help in interceding and being an example and sharing the agape love for our brothers and sisters and bearing one another's burdens as we're told to do. In that respect, Christ is then multiplying the action of interceding. And it's getting done by the body of Christ for the body of Christ. And we also grow. That's the work of God and Christ. That's one of the things that he does. He is still working. We'll go over that, what the high priest does and why it's such an amazing thing. And we say everything is in Christ. He's our sacrifice. He's the lamb of God. I mean, we can go through the list, right? He's also our intercession. And we have all that. We're called to sacrifice as well. You are also called to intercede for people. So in that we are reflecting the character of God and we're growing in that. So Christ has made all things possible. He made all this possible. He's the sacrifice in our stead for our sins and the sin of the world. It was all put on him. And through his blood, we have life. Leviticus 17, 11. There's life in the blood. He's the resurrection to life. He told Martha, I think it was, I am the resurrection. She said, oh, I know. I know there's a resurrection. He said, no, I am the resurrection. Do you believe that? And then he called Lazarus out. He's the lamb of God. And I want to just kind of take a sidebar here, okay? He's the lamb of God. He was the lamb of God. He is the lamb of God. He will be. There are people that, and this sort of goes around, they want to diminish the deity of Christ. We had somebody, I had somebody tell me that Christ is no longer the lamb of God. And he gave some big, you know, explanation. Well, if you will, let's do a couple things here. Let's go, if you will, turn to, I've got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 places in the book of Revelation where Christ is called the lamb of God. That he is his throne, the father, and he, the throne of the lamb of God. He's, I mean, you almost, you have to read those. Let me just give them to you for the record here. Revelation 5, 8. You may not have time to go through those. 6, 1, 7, 9, 12, 11, 13, 8, 14, 4, 15, 3, 17, 14, 19, 7, 21, 9, and 22, 1. Let's go to 22, 1. Just read a couple of these. 22, 1, it says, Then he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, flowing out from the throne of God and of the lamb in the middle of the street, etc. Okay. And then go back to 21, 9. Just go back one. And one of the seven angels that had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me, saying, come here, and I will show you the bride, the lamb's wife. Well, if he's no longer the lamb, then that shoots the whole bride of Christ down. And, you know, I mean, you got to think about some of the things people say. And figure out what, I mean, where are they coming from? Why are they doing it? It's an effort to diminish the deity of God. 19, 7. Let us be glad and shout with joy. Let us give glory to him. For the marriage of the lamb has come, and his wife has made herself ready. And that's on the back end of this. You just go back into the front part of Revelation, and there's other places. So listen, when you hear something like that, and you go, wait a minute, that doesn't sound right. Search it out. Find out why you have that feeling. And then you will be ready the next time to give an answer to someone in a nice way. I mean, you know, I just told the individual, no, that's not right. That's not right. Oh, yeah, it is. I said, no, it's not. It's not. He is the lamb of God. He always will be the lamb of God. And that will never change. I said, what other names will you want to take away from him? You know, once he's named, that's his name. So, okay, moving on. He is the king and the lord. He is the high priest, the one who makes intercession or prayer requests for us. That's what the word means. It means prayer requests or going in and requesting for someone or interceding for somebody. It's interesting. It calls it prayer requests. For us before the Father, on our behalf, he intercedes for us. Without Christ, none of this is possible. We all know Philippians 4.13. All things are possible through Christ. He strengthens me. Now, it's interesting because the duties of a high priest are, oh, it's a couple of them, to make atonement for the nation of Israel on the day of atonement. You see how Passover and atonement, again, are so interwoven? They are one. You can't take one outside the other. To participate in the sacrifices, to provide oversight of the temple, the priests, the Levitical priests, and the regulations and teaching the people. To present the sin offering for the nation as occasionally required. And then this last one. To perform the atoning sacrifice and burnt offering on the great day of atonement once a year. Entering into the Holy of Holies with the blood from the sacrifice. Now, he was the Lamb of God. He was, blood was shed. He is now our high priest. And he is before the throne to intercede for us before the Father. What happened when he died that day? The day he died? One of the things was the temple veil ripped in two. And that signified for us to have access to the Holy of Holies where the Father is. By just each and every one of us individually can go in now, personally go in. Where before the high priest was the only one that would go in once a year. They even tied a rope around him so if he died they had to drag him back out. The Christ now is at the right hand of the Father. Mark 16, 19. It says, after speaking to them, Mark 16, 19. After speaking to them, the Lord was indeed then taken up into the heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. Now, a lot of work to do. First John 2, 2. The duties of a high priest. He is the propitiation. Ongoing sacrifice. Ongoing atonement for our sins. Not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. The sins and the sin of the world and the individuals in it. So those duties once again of a high priest. Now see how this transitions. All the things that Christ is and does. He's our intercessor. The Lamb, that sacrifice, made it possible for him then to intercede for us. And it was planned before the foundation of the world that he would do that. He was interceding before the program even got started. To perform the atoning sacrifice and burnt offering on the great day of atonement once a year, entering into the Holy of Holies with the blood from the sacrifice. I didn't get into that. It's very interesting. Okay, these are the duties of Christ, the intercessor for all mankind, and especially the church of which he is the head and the foundation. Again, look those scriptures up. Hebrews 7, actually all of Hebrews is quite a study. It's an amazing book. Hebrews 7.25 says, Consequently, he is able to say to the utmost those who draw near to him, to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. That's his purpose. That's his job. That's his work. That's one of the things that he came to do from the foundation of the world. And now at the end, there he is. To make atonement, a sacrifice once for all. And this individual also told me the sacrifices would start and they would be, and we needed, everyone needed to have a personal sacrifice. Well, they went out and got a lamb because they then could feel that. They knew then they saw the blood and they killed it. No, it's just once for all. That's not necessary if you believe the scripture, which we do. First John 2.1. First John 2.1. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. Now, advocate is an interesting word. I know a little bit about that. The Greek word is perikleton. It's close to periklesis, which is the Holy Spirit. It also means helper, advisor, or counselor. An advocate is a person who publicly supports or recommends a particular cause or policy. For example, he was an untiring advocate of economic reform, or she has been a tireless advocate for women, organization, and causes. So Christ is called our advocate. An advocate is a person who comes to our aid or pleads our case to a judge, to God the Father. And Satan's right there, accusing us. Advocates offer support, strength, counsel, and intercede for us when necessary. And intercede for us when necessary, which is all the time. It's necessary all the time. This is how we're made. We are without Christ. We're nothing. Without His sacrifice, we're nothing. So this is Jesus Christ. He's now sitting at the right hand of God, interceding, mediating, being our advocate before the Father. And as His begotten brothers and sisters, we are to emulate, imitate, and have the mind of Christ in us. We're to come to the fullness of the stature. In Ephesians 4, 12, 13, 14, of Jesus Christ. I've been really tired this week, so my mind's not catching these scriptures like this. There's a hole up there that's seeping out. We have His mind in us. We are to be as He is, interceding for our brothers and sisters in Christ, as Christ does for us. Being an advocate, we are to be an advocate before the Father for others. We take on that role when we do intercessory prayer for someone. Ephesians 4, 22-24. This is the change from where we were when we have God's Holy Spirit to now, after baptism, to now. What we're trying to do is to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires. And to be renewed in the spirit of your minds. And to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. By doing that, by getting on our knees and interceding when we see that someone needs help. That's how we do that. So I thought this was an important subject. The other day, it's been about three weeks now. I got an email from a formal prayer update. Actually, it was an update. And it said something that prompted this thought. The individual referenced the power of intercessory prayer in his life. And he gave God the glory for healing him. It included the intercessory prayers of the brethren. So he realized where it came from. That God heard those prayers. He understood its importance because he was the recipient of its power and its love. Mercy and kindness and compassion from others who had interceded for him before the Father. So about six years ago, it seems like it wasn't that long, but it has been. Around 2018, 2019, CBCG put together a prayer list for brethren in CBCG. We see that here on the email list. The reason was, one of the main reasons for going to meeting was that we're so scattered. And we have people that are all over the place. We don't get to interact and to be with one another, hear one another, and talk to one another. We're scattered. Many needs of the brethren were being made known because when we got together, then naturally that's what we do. Brethren were asking for the need of prayers from others in the body. And for healing and for help in different situations, suffering they were going through. So with that, those needs were becoming more clear and being made known to me. And so the prayer list was started. And now it's been in operation for a while. There have been many who have benefited from receiving those intercessory prayers of others. And there have been many who have benefited from giving those prayers. Talks about a reward for that. I bet you probably don't even think about the fact that God looks at that and He looks at you in a favorable way. When you do that for others. So they have benefited both ways. You know, an interesting, I know this probably shouldn't even tell you this, but it's an interesting fact that I was going through that. I was looking back in the records. There have been 12,688 prayer requests that have gone out since then. 12,688. And more than that because this was three weeks ago. And even out of those 12,688, I couldn't help but notice it gives a click rate and an open rate. And they're sent out and there's, you know, how many are opened and how many just receive it and don't do anything with it. And I'm not saying anything about this negatively one way or the other. But how many would you think were opened? I mean, you don't have to raise your hand because I can't see. We were talking about it in the discussion. But it's an interesting number. If you think about the 10 virtues, it was exactly 50% of the recipients on the prayer list didn't open their prayer request. And people probably are getting it and they're not saying anything. They're really, you know, what is this? Maybe it's people who have no idea what's going on with it. But there's an opportunity there to grow and develop the love and the benefit of interceding for your family members. And I'm sure there's reasons for it. You know, I haven't been 100% diligent in doing it as myself either. Actually, I did a lot better. I read them all and I look at all of them and I say a little prayer in my mind when I read it. But my excuse is I'm hitting the ground so hard and running that I don't have time to do this. I started this. This is a professional pull word. It was very professional. And so what I did was I started printing them out. I had a little ledger and I printed them out. And I would read them. And that's why it's important to send back, you know, an update, you know, that you're better now and you don't need the prayers to continue. But anyway, I ran out. I mean, I got a number of them here, but I got to get going on this again. But if you take that on your knees in your room somewhere in private and take those and read each one of them and think about that person and what they're going through, it does a lot of things. First of all, you're going to the Father on their behalf, not yours. That's the power of it. It's like having someone tell you, you know, go to the boss at work and say, you know, so-and-so over here, he's doing a wonderful job. Did you know that he did this and he did that and it turned out great? And the boss says, no, I didn't know that. Wow. Now, if you go in there and tell the boss, do you know what I did? I did this and I did that, and he goes, okay. There's a big difference between someone else going and telling than you telling for yourself. So it has more weight. It has power. It has more of the agape connection. It has also a unifying effect. So it's important that when we at least look at them and say a little silent prayer when you see them, and it is very important. So it's also, here's another reason why it's so important. It's commanded. God the Father commands that as children that we of this, and made in his image, and put on the holy righteous character of the Father and Christ, and we have their mind. We have their thoughts. We have their Holy Spirit, their character. We're developing holy righteous character. And we are to love one another, which is, we'll read that in a minute. So we're told this is what we are to become. And by doing this, as Christ did in this, we put on Christ. We imitate him. We have our minds and characters transformed to be like Christ. We imitate him. In James 5.13, James 5, he says, we know the first part of this. Is anyone suffering hardship among you? Let him pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing praises. And we're talking about the prayer, you know, worship and thanksgiving. Is anyone sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray. Here's the intercession. And God set it up this way. There's a reason why he did it. Okay. People in the past, and I understand why, they have been down on elders and all. But God is the one who put that in place. It's not the function. It's the one that's in the function doing the wrong thing for the wrong reason with the wrong heart and the wrong whatever. And those, God will filter out. But don't let that stick to you in how you deal with people and how you think about people. We are to keep that cleaned in our head. Okay. So anyone sick, call for the elders of the church. Let them pray over him after anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick one. And the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, they shall be forgiven. He is our atoning, our propitiation, our sacrifice. And the blood of Christ will forgive if you repent and you go through that process. Now it says, confess your faults to one another. Now that is not going like the Catholics do and, you know, you sit down with a public confessor and all that. You know, I'm sick. I must have eaten something wrong. I must have done something right. You know, I'm sorry. I'm sick. Would you pray for me? And pray for one another that you may be healed. The supplication of a righteous man prevails much. Being effective. There's a reason why it is. You're hitting on all of these God playing tendencies and traits. And God is hearing it. And God is watching. And he's listening. You have God's Holy Spirit. And it's going, you know, it's hitting on that plane. And the righteousness is from Christ. It's not that you're, you know, some big power of righteousness. No, it's from Christ because you're just the opposite of that. And it's being effective. It says in research, the word supplication, it can mean petition or prayer request. I think that's interesting. So Ephesians 6.18 says, Ephesians 6.18, praying at all times with all prayer and supplication in the spirit. And in this very thing, being watchful with all perseverance, staying with it like the widow, and the supplication for all the saints, supplication for all the saints. That's our charge. That's what he tells us to do. So intercessory prayer is very powerful. It's a very powerful form of prayer. But it's a powerful unifier. It's a powerful development, character development tool. It gets God's attention. You pray for somebody else. And it's different because it's a selfless act. It's not about you or me. It's the other person. It's showing love and concern for others. It is powerful because you are not praying for yourself or your own needs and your own desires. You are praying for the needs of others led by the Holy Spirit to do so. Again, it's on a God plane. We're touching that God plane, that spirit plane. Okay, so when we do that, we intercede on behalf of another person. We're fulfilling the law of Christ. We're fulfilling the law of Christ. In Matthew 22, 36-38, we know this. Matthew 22, 36-38. You know, effective intercession involves empathy. Empathy and sympathy. Sympathy is what you've gone through and Christ has gone and suffered everything that we know and we go through, Christ knows. Okay, the empathy is the feeling that you have, the love you have, the connection you have, the mercy that you feel. And it's all from a God they love for our fellow man and for God. Again, it's a spirit plane. We're being Christ-like and we're reflecting the mind and character of Christ. Okay, Matthew 22, 36, it says, the young lawyer comes to him and says, Master, which commandment is great, the great commandment put in the law? And Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. The second one is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. So we know that. And so he gave him an extra. He only asked for one and he gave him two. He broke it down. You do both. And the second one is more difficult, I think, because that's where you face the face. That's where you have rubber meets the road and there's more interaction. There's a human element in it, and that's very difficult to make these, you know, the things that we're told to do in loving our neighbor actually work. So when you have intercessory prayer for someone else, with God's Holy Spirit, you have sincere love, that agape love for the brethren, compassion, the sympathy and the empathy that you have, a sincere heart, perseverance, hanging in there and persevering and praying until you get the report back, if it's okay, a knowledge and love of the truth. Because we pray in truth, in spirit and truth. And you, that is the connect. That's another connector. Because Christ is the truth. That he is the word. And we have him in us. And we have a love of the truth. We love Christ. We love God. And we love our fellow man. The Holy Spirit has to be dwelling in us. It's very important. Now, you can do this without and you can still do that. But the connection is not there as far as spirit to spirit. Again, praying at all times with all prayer and supplication in the spirit. Ephesians 618. For all saints. Romans 828. Romans 828. For by hope we were saved. The hope that is seen is not hope. For why would anyone still be hoping for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we ourselves wait for it with patience. And sometimes we have to be really patient. Now, in the same way also, the spirit is conjointly helping our weaknesses. Because we do not fully understand what we should pray for. Have you ever done that? According as it is necessary. But the spirit itself, here's another point. Sometimes people have to know everything there is about a person before they can pray for them. No, you don't. You don't need to know. All you need to know is that John needs your prayers. Period. Now, we get more information. That's okay. Because you go to God the Father and you say, John needs, you know, I don't know what it is you do. Will you please intercede for him? Your will be done, et cetera, et cetera. God knows exactly who you're talking about and what needs to be done. So it doesn't matter. I've had people say, well, wait a minute, you've got to tell me more. No. It's not necessary. If somebody asks me to anoint them, I will. And they say, I mean, they hold off and they don't want to tell me anything, and that's okay. It would be nice if I knew. It would give me a direction in the prayer. But it doesn't have to be for God to heal that person. It's a prayer of faith, and their faith and our faith, and in this atmosphere of faith. The Spirit is conjointly helping our weaknesses because we do not fully understand what we should pray for according to as it is necessary. The Spirit itself makes intercession for us with groanings that cannot be expressed by us. The one who searches the heart, God the Father. And Jesus Christ comprehends what the strivings of the Spirit are because it makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. You see? And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. Again, who we're intercessing prayer is the will of God. In caring for others and interceding for them before God, we are drawing close to our calling as Spirit-led sons and daughters in the family, with the family, and unifying and drawing close to the family and God and Jesus Christ. We're fulfilling the will of God through intercessory prayer. To pray for all in 1 Timothy 2, 1 Timothy 2, 3 through 4. It says, To pray for all people, for this is good and pleases God, our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. So in his mind, he sees everyone as potential sons and gods, and they will be given an opportunity at some point. So he says, It's good and it pleases God, who wants all people to be saved, that we pray for all people. Christ said, I'm not praying for them right now, I'm praying for you. That doesn't mean he didn't have compassion, empathy and sympathy and love to help bring the rest in. And so that was his main goal, that was his main thrust at that moment. And he cried when he saw Jerusalem, he said, Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, I would have brought you under my wings. So he did have compassion for everyone. But he spent his focus on those individuals that he was brushing ahead of a job to do and get them ready. Ephesians 6, 18. Again, praying at all times in the spirit with prayer and supplication keeps us alert and makes supplication for the saints. Keeps us focused on them. 1st Timothy 2, 1. It talks about who we can be praying for, praying for the household of God. But what about the presidents or the government? Should it be that we pray for them so that we have peace and we can do the things we need to do? Yeah. So it says in 1st Timothy 2, 1. I exhort therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgiving. Look at them laid out there. Be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority. Why? In order that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and respectability. Verse 3. For this is good and acceptable before God, our Savior. He desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ. Now why is he calling the man Jesus Christ? If you go to 1st, you go to John 1, 14. It talks about Christ coming in the flesh. If you think about why he came as a man, God in the flesh, with the law of sin and death. So that when he died, he lived a perfect life and was crucified. That one sacrifice for all mankind. There is nobody else that could do that. The creator, the designer, the sustainer of all mankind, of all creation, came and died for that. That is how. So the man Jesus Christ, Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, the testimony of which is to be preached in its appointed time. So true intercessory prayer seeks God's glory, not our own. The following is only a partial list of those that we should, and the scriptures here with it. We don't probably have time to go through them all, but let me give you the list and I'll give you the scripture beside it. You can look that up. It would be a good study. Who we should offer intercessory prayer for. Again, remember, the household of God is first. Those that we fellowship with and associate with and that are brothers in Christ, that's very important. But as we just saw, all in authority. And there's a reason for that. 1 Timothy 2, 2, all in authority. Ministers, elders. Philippians 1, 19. Friends. Job did that. Job 42, 8. Fellow countrymen. Romans 10, verse 1. The sick, as we just read. James 5, 14. And guess what? Our enemies. Jeremiah 29, 7. And then also Matthew 5 in Beatitudes talks about that. How about those who persecute us? 544. Those who forsake us. Have you ever been forsaken? Have you ever been stabbed in the back? All the things that go along with being in the calling we're in and being where we are. 2 Timothy 4, 16. And then all men, as we read. 1 Timothy 2, 1. So there's one mediator between God and man. The man Jesus Christ. There's one advocate. There's one intercessor. There's one high priest. In Hebrews 7, 25. Hebrews 7, 25. It says, therefore he is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through him. See, you have to go through Christ. Since he always lives to make intercession for them. That's the point. That's his job. That's his work. That's why he came. That's why. And see how intercession, intercessory prayer plays in. It is big. It's more than just, oh, I get this. No, it's big. Not only for the person you're praying for, but for you. What does it do to you? What is it doing? It's a selfless act. It's a God-like, God-playing, spiritual level. Thinking and binding and growing together and unifying. And you're not only with the individuals here, but with Christ and God. Coming from one part of the family. He secured salvation of the elect. And that part of it, he said, it is finished. Well, it wasn't done. He said that part of it, the physical part of it was finished on 1930. But it continues. It continues in heaven beside the Father on the throne on our behalf. Until we come to the glory that he has prepared for us as inheritors now. We actually inherit all things with him. Co-inheritors. His care for his redeemed children will never be finished. Even when we become spirit and the aged man is done and we're in the family, we go out, he's still going to care about us and everyone else. We're all in the family together. Ephesians 4.13. This is the one I wanted to reach out. I don't know why I couldn't get my head right. Until we all come into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. That's what intercessory prayer does. It links us to one another and to Christ all in one. What did John, what did he say? You talk about an intercessory prayer. John 17. We're going to go through that here in a couple weeks. John 17 is powerful. 1 John 3.1. Talking about inheritors, talking about part of the family, he wants us to be one. It says, Behold what glorious love the Father has given to us that we should be called the children of God. For this very reason, the world does not know us because it did not know him. Beloved, we are the children of God. We're now the children of God. And it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. But we know that when he is manifested, we shall be like him. And there's preparation going on right now in developing that holy, righteous character. Because we shall see him exactly as he is. And part of seeing him is that we will be like that. And we'll see him just exactly because we'll be like looking in a mirror. By interceding for others, we're showing Christ's mind in us. I know I'm repeating some of this. For the brethren, he has minded us and his love for the brethren and our family members. Being a family that cares for one another is pleasing to God. Caring for our family. Helping God in Christ to complete the work of God. And you think that they don't need us to do that. Then why Ephesians 2.10? Why are we his workmanship? Why is he the master ponderer? Why is he the creating? Why is this like a school when we graduate, we move on? We get our parchment, we're put in the ground, and then resurrection day is okay. We're going on to whatever. Whatever's next. But we do this, we learn this by burying one another's burdens. In Galatians 6, it talks about this. And it says, in 6.2.10, it says, Burying one another's burdens so that we fulfill the law of Christ. This is, it's more than just an occasional or a big deal. So then as we have opportunity, every time we get one of these, every time we hear something, somebody needs our prayers or needs to do good to all. And especially to those who are the household of faith. How do we bear one another's burdens? One way is through intercessory prayer. We become more like God, like Christ, our big brother. Christ is our intercessor, mediator, high advocate, and high priest. We read Ephesians 4.13. We know Philippians 2.5. Matthew 5.48 is become you therefore perfect. And 1 Peter 3.18, growing in grace and knowledge. 1 Peter 3.18, growing in grace and knowledge. All those are indicators that we're on that right path. Again, he's our intercessor, he's our high priest, atonement, he's our Passover for all. Hebrews 4.14. Hebrews 4.14. Having therefore a great high priest. And you know what, in Revelation 5.10, it says we're going to be kings and priests as well on the earth. Kings and priests. We have to learn to be a priest. What does that mean? Look at the duties of Christ, the high priest has. And look at our opportunity to follow in his footsteps and follow his example. Having therefore a high priest. He went into the holy of holies one time a year. He was the only one allowed to go in. And that was going before the Father. It represented him going before the Father for an atonement for our sins. It foreshadowed, in Israel, it foreshadowed Christ in his position now, where he is now. It says, who passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, we should hold fast the confession of our faith. Keep your eye on the goal. Hang in there. Hold fast. In verse 15 he says, for we do not have a high priest who cannot empathize with our weaknesses, but one who was tempted in all things according to the likeness of our own temptations. He went through everything we went through. And you think, no, but he understood that. Yet, he was without sin. Because of all this, even though you're going through these problems. We started out with Abraham Lincoln. We started out with the young. You talk about that man that was under stress. We have that too. We have those things personally in our own lives. And the whole world does. Even though you have these difficulties, Christ is there at the right hand of God the Father. And the temple veil of the holy of holies was split in two. And you now can go in personally to Abba, to our Father. Crawl up on his lap. And say, Daddy, I need to tell you these things. I am asking you this. And he's there. He stops everything. And he listens to you. And Christ said in John 17, he said, don't ask me. Why are you asking me? Go straight to the Father in my name and he'll hear you. I think it was verse 16. Therefore we should come with boldness to the throne of grace. That's available to us. We can do that over and over for ourselves. But more importantly, we can do that and show Christ in us. That we're developing holy righteous character as we go before him for others. Interceding for them. And all of that goes out from God in grace. God's love to you. And the heavenly things that come down to you. They're all there for you. They're all available. And verse 16, he says, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help. To help in times of need. That's everyday need. Everything that goes on in our lives. Every concern. Every suffering. Everything that happens. He tells us to come before him boldly. If we see someone in need or if we hear of someone in need. If we have God's Holy Spirit and the love of God. We can make a difference. And he wants us to. And that's pleasing to him. And we want to make a difference because we're part of the body. We're part of the family. And we're part of the group. It builds unity. John 1711, he said, that they may be one. Even as you, Father, are in me and I in you. That they also may be one in us. Christ intercedes for us. We intercede for one another. And it unifies us. The Father, Christ, and us. In order that the world may believe that you did send me. Glorify the Father. In other places, Christ talks about the body being one, you know, one in unity. He says in Malachi 3.60. He says, then those fearing the Lord spoke together, each man to his own neighbor. And the Lord listened and heard. And a book of remembrance was written before him for those who feared the Lord. And for those who fought upon his name. And they shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts. In the day that I will make up my own special jewels. And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him. Then you shall return and discern between the righteous and the wicked. Between the one who serves God and the one who does not serve us. In this last scripture, we will stop here. But I would say, read John 17 with this idea in mind. Of the intercessory prayer that Christ gave to the apostles and to God. On their behalf and on our behalf. We had time to read it all the way through, but you'll read that at Passover. Read it before and think about it this way. So, Psalm 133, we'll end with this. This is how God sees the escape of people who were pulling together, right? He sees them in a certain way. He's excited about it. About the fact that we pray for one another and that we think about the problems we have. He says that we're going to be in the world. And don't take them out of the world, but leave them in the world. They don't let them be part of the world. Hold Satan back from destroying them. Psalm 133, 1. Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It is one. And we do that through intercessory prayer. So, let's think about that and we'll end with that. It's really powerful. So, we need to think about that and institute it in our lives for other people. And you'll see a major change.