I'm very excited about this topic, intercession, because as a missionary, I rely upon the intercessory prayers of other people. So, let's go to the Lord in prayer, shall we? O Lord God, this is your holy word. We are your servants. Give us understanding that we might know your testimonies. You have prayed, O Lord, sanctify them in truth. Your word is truth. Use your holy, eternal, inerrant written word to set us apart this day to your service and to your glory. Show us now great and mighty things which we do not know. The sower sows the word. Let not your word go out and return empty, but accomplish that purpose for which you have drawn us together and for which you are now sending it out. Protect us from Satan who will snatch your word, making it empty. Protect us from a wrong reaction to difficulties and discouragements and persecutions which make our hearts hard and unresponsive to your word. Protect us from the world's cares and the delight of wealth and the passion of other interests which enter in and choke your word, making it fruitless. Rather give us good soil, O Lord, Plow up now the hard ground of our hearts, that your sown word would send roots downward and bear fruit upward. Unsheath now the sword of your spirit, O Lord. Cut to the dividing point of bone and marrow, soul and spirit. Judge now the thoughts and intentions of each heart gathered here. Spread your word before us as a banquet table, O Lord. Grant grace that we might eat of the rich meat and drink of the sweet milk of the great doctrines of your holy word. Give us the heart of the prophet who cried to you. Thy words were found and I did eat them. And thy words became to me a joy and a delight of my heart for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts. O Lord, we live in a dark and a wicked age. broad is the way and many are on it which leads to destruction make your word a lamp to our feet make your word a light to our path show us that narrow way that you would have us run and Lord as we run in the paths of your commandments enlarge our hearts that in loving you we might be more obedient to your written word. Drop your word against our lives as a plumb line, O Lord. Grant grace that we might see how we deviate from its high and holy purposes. Make your word to us a mirror, O Lord. Grant grace that we might not be as those who look and go away and forget but make us active doers, not forgetful listeners of your holy word. O LORD, because of our fealty to you, because of our undying love and devotion to your Son, our resurrected Savior, we pledge to you this day our total submission to your holy, eternal, inerrant, written, Word, and we pledge to you our unquestioning obedience to all of its commands. In the name of our Lord and resurrected Savior, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. Okay, intercession. This is a section of our prayer notebook. The noon study asked for me to send some of the verses I'll be sharing with you from my prayer notebook, so I'll do that for the two o'clock people as well. But we are going to look at intercessions. So, Dr. Arnold, you'll be reading, so will you read Ephesians 5, 25 and 26, please? Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her to make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the water. Now, if we are to love our wives as Christ loved the church, then those passages of scripture which express Jesus' love for the church and mankind would express our love for our wife. Now we know, turn with me to John 17 please, we know in John 17 that Jesus prayed his high priestly prayer beginning in verse 1 not only for the disciples but for all disciples who would come thereafter. Look at John 17 verse 20 and 21 please Dr. Arnold. I pray not only for these but also for those who believe in me through your word. May they all be one, as you, Father, are in me, and I am in you. May they also be in us, so that the world may believe. Amen. So, Jesus was praying for the church, not just for the twelve. And if we are to love our wives as Christ loved the church, then we will be praying for our wives in earnest. Luke 22, 32, Dr. Arnold. Lord, I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And you, when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers. So yes, we pray for our wives that their faith will not fail. That if they sin, they will repent. That they will grow strong. Notice Ephesians 5.26 says that he might sanctify her. The word sanctify means to set apart. So we pray earnestly for our wife that she would be set apart to God's service and to God's glory. We pray for her every day. Now I'd like to share with you by way of example some of the things that I pray for Eleanor. Excuse me. Some of the things that I pray for Eleanor. This is from my prayer notebook. Notice I have her picture in it. And the other place I have Eleanor's picture is on my phone. And I always encourage all men, you need a picture, a very attractive picture of your wife on your phone, a very attractive picture of your wife in your prayer notebook, We should always be reminded as men that we are not our own. We belong to two people. Now, 1 Corinthians 6.19, we know one of those. Dr. Frueh, would you read that? 1 Corinthians 6.19. When I say we belong to two different, to two people, who do we, what do I mean by that? Don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit voicing you? What you have from God, you are not your own. That's right. So we are not free agents, are we? Now read the next verse following that. For you were bought at a price, so glorify God with your body. We were bought with the price of Christ's blood and body and death. We were transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. Most people think that we were freed from the kingdom of darkness. Well, we were, but that's just half the truth. We were freed in that we were transferred from one Lord to another Lord. to our Lord Jesus Christ. So, we weren't simply freed. So, we belong to Jesus. Those people who say, have you prayed to make Christ Lord? Well, I understand what they mean, but it's not technically correct, because the Lordship of Christ is one of His immutable, eternal, transcendent attributes. He is Lord. the question is have we submitted to his lordship that's the question not have we made him lord as if that was something we could do well let's look uh... at the next chapter which is first corinthians seven verse four would you read that please that a husband does. In the same way, a husband does not have to lie to his wife, but he lets his wife do it. Yeah. We also belong to our wife. So, and vice versa. Our wife belongs to the Lord, but she also belongs to us. Read verse 32, please. 732. I want you to be without concerns. The American man is concerned about the things of the Lord. How can he please the Lord? Now if you only want one owner, if you only want to belong to one person, that's the Lord Jesus Christ, stay single. Now read verse 33. But the murdered man is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife. And verse 34 completes the sentence. On his interest of the wife. Yes. And that's one of the reasons many Navigator staff, many Campus Crusade staff, many pastors, have given to difficulty when it comes to their marriage and family is because their interests are not divided. They function as if they were single men, but your interests are divided. if you're married. Dr. Arnold, it would be like if the head of the hospital said, now I want you to be responsible for two things, Dr. Arnold. Up on the fifth floor is the children's ward. You're responsible for that. But down on the first floor is the emergency entrance. And you will also be on call for that. So you have two things. Now they have nothing to do with each other virtually, do they? They're very different responsibilities. Ophthalmology and surgery for children versus emergency admittance. That would be trauma of all nature. So the hospital review board comes up and they say, well, Dr. Arnold, we've been very, very happy with how trauma admittance has been taking place down on the first floor. But we have noticed that maybe once a week, if at best, you show yourself up on the children's ward. So are they happy? No, they're not happy. Because you say, well, my interests will be divided. And they say, that's exactly right. That's your job description. And when we marry, the job description is that our interest is divided. So it's not that we spend some time in our ministry and some time with our family. They are both our ministry. We are called to two ministries. One ministry, the church or the Navigators or Campus Crusade or whatever ministry we're involved in. But the other ministry is to our wife and children. And God holds us responsible for both. And in doing so, our interests become divided. But that's God's will. So when I pray through my prayer notebook, I have a whole section for Eleanor and this helps me keep my interests divided because I'm praying for her. Now, we cannot simply pray intercessory prayer for our wife without acting on those prayers. If prayers alone could assure a happy marriage and obedient children, there wouldn't be any unhappy marriages or obedient children in the church, would there? In fact, you will notice that people who are struggling with their marriage and have disobedient children seem to be more vocal about their prayers, don't they? Oh, pray for my wife. Oh, pray for my husband. Oh, pray for my children. So prayer is our starting point, but one of the values I feel of praying intercessory for my wife, not only will God answer those prayers, but it keeps me focused that that is an aspect of my ministry. Now, how are we going to decide what to pray for our wife? Well, let's look at 1 John 5. 14. Would you read that, Dr. Arnold, please? This is the confidence we have before Him. If we ask anything according to His will, He answers. Yeah. We know that if it is the Word of God, it's the will of God, don't we? A good cross reference to that verse, if you write in your Bibles, is John 15, verse 7. If you abide in me, and my word abides in you, then ask whatever you will, and it will be done for you. God promises us, promises to answer our prayers If they are in accordance with God's will, God's and God's word is God's will. It's his revealed will for man. So I will have these, I have verses for all the aspects of my prayer for Eleanor. And I would encourage you to have a sheet in your prayer notebook with your wife's name there and verses that you are praying for. One of the live verses I claim for Eleanor. Some of these verses change, but this one never changes. Proverbs 31, 25. Strength and dignity are her clothing and she smiles at the future. Now a verse that, this is Eleanor's verse that never changes in her prayer notebook. 1st Peter 3.6 Thus Sarah obeyed Abraham calling him Lord and you have become her children if you do what is right without being frightened by any fear." And so Eleanor desires to be my helpmate and to stand by my side without being frightened. And we've been traveling in 29 countries over the last 30 years. Volcanoes have erupted. Ebola and other diseases and pandemics have broken out. We've been in, civil war has broken out in the countries we've been in. Earthquakes have broken out. Bandits have attacked cities. Bandits attacking, seeking to waylay us on the road when we're driving. Snakes and insects. Microbes. I say I have the unique experience of lying on the floor next to a toilet in 29 capitals of the world throwing up all night. I've never visited a country where I didn't end up on the floor by the toilet at least one of those nights while I'm there, usually on the front end. Well, I own their praise that as she stands by me, and as we go through all of these experiences, had grenade launchers pointed at me, guns pointed at me, threatened, that she would not be frightened by any fear, but would stand by me as my helpmate. What a blessing to have a wife who would claim that verse. Isn't that wonderful? Well, so if she's going to pray it for herself, I'm going to pray it for her. So, some of the verses in my prayer notebook that I pray for Eleanor are ones I have come up with. But also, I want to know what verses Eleanor is praying for herself. And then vice versa is true. She has in her prayer notebook verses she's praying for me, but she also wants to know what verses I'm praying for me. When I got engaged to Eleanor, she got rid of her Bible and bought a Bible with the same translation because she wanted to be reading the same translation of the Bible that I was reading. So she could be one heart with me. And we've always go to the same church and we always minister together. In fact, I'm writing a missionary this week to tell him that Eleanor and I will no longer be supporting his ministry financially because he and his wife are going to different churches because his wife no longer agrees with the doctrines his church teaches, so she's going to a different church. That's happened before. I remember We were visiting with a couple that we supported financially and the wife had just been ordained as the pastor in that church. And Eleanor said, well, is that difficult for your husband to sit there in the congregation while you're preaching? And what if your husband is, is preaching or something different from you? Shouldn't you be his helpmate? And she said, well, the bishop, the Pentecostal bishop won't allow my husband to teach or preach in the church. He goes to a different church. So Eleanor rebuked her. She said, you are to be your husband's helpmate. It's not good for him to be alone. I would never go to a church where my husband was shamed by not being allowed to teach and preach, but I was. Ephesians 5.33. Husbands love your wives even as yourself and let the wife see to it that she respect or reverence her husband. And she said, that is not reverencing your husband. And she was unteachable, but that doesn't mean we have to support them financially. So it's gotten to the point where before we support a missionary or a ministry financially, it's unfortunate that we have to ask, do you and your wife go to the same church? And is she your helpmate in the ministry? Eleanor and I always minister together. Now there may be an occasion where I go on a mission trip, it may be for several weeks without Eleanor because of safety concerns. But that's a single event in the ministry year. Or I might go to a weekend men's conference. Well, that's a single event. Or Eleanor might be invited to speak at a woman's conference. That's a single event. But as a lifestyle, we travel, we minister as one. And she is my helpmate in the ministry. Well, this isn't my marriage seminar, but how can you pray for your wife every day and not impact your role as a husband? I pray for her walk with God, Ruth 311. Now my daughter do not fear. I will do whatever you ask for all the people in the city know that you are a woman of excellence. So I pray for every day that that would be true of her. I pray for the disciplines of her life. Proverbs 31, 29, many daughters have done nobly, but you excel them all. I pray that she would be free from fear. First Peter 5, 7, casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you. I pray for strength and stamina. Proverbs 31.17, she girds herself with strength and makes her arms strong. I pray for victory over health issues. Proverbs 31.25, strength and dignity are clothing. I pray for friendship for her. Proverbs 17.17, a friend loves at all times. Proverbs, Romans 15, 32, that she would find refreshing rest in the company of other Christian women. 1 Corinthians 15, 33, that she would be protected from bad company, which corrupts good morals. When you're traveling seven or eight months, nine months out of the year, it's hard for Eleanor to develop lasting relationships. So when we began that ministry, I began asking God and God was faithful to give her friends that endure over the miles and years. I pray for her happiness. Psalm 86, 4, make glad the soul of your servant. Psalm 92, 4. For you, O Lord, have made me glad by what you have done." Psalm 12, 126.3. The Lord has done great things for us. We are glad. And I pray those things for Eleanor. that she would find happiness and refreshing and gladness in the Lord. I pray for her spiritual protection, 1 Timothy 2, 14 and 15, that she would be protected as a daughter of Eve from the temptations of Satan. I pray for her health. Isaiah 4110, do not fear for I am with you. Do not anxiously look about for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. And that God would do that for her. I pray for her ministry responsibilities in the GCI office. Proverbs 31, 13, 15, 18, 27. So I pray for her. I don't pray for her in these areas because they are weaknesses. Many of them are strengths. But I pray that God would bless her. So Dr. Arnold, you too should have a prayer sheet for your wife that is, and you think through about specific prayers for her and then pray for her every day. That way you can be her spiritual protector. You will love her as Christ loved the church and sanctify her. She should know what you are praying for. I pray for the children. 3 John 1 verse 4 says, I have no greater joy than this to hear my children walking in the truth. And I have 10 specific things I pray for my children as a family. Then I have things that I pray for them as individuals, Becca and Aaron, and I have things. Then I have Sam and Ann and his family, and I have my children and grandchildren. I have things I pray for them. Megan and Jason, their picture, things I pray for them. My youngest daughter Lizzie and her husband, things I pray for them. Then I have verses that I pray for my home. Of course, I don't pray all of these verses every day. I pray for one, and I put a tick mark by it. The next day, I'll pray for another one. Now, when I get to the bottom, I start at the top again. Proverbs 31, 11, the heart of the husband trusts in her, he will have no lack of gain. The very first verse, I began praying For Eleanor, it says, husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. So I pray for my role as a husband. This is my life husband verse that I would, that she would experience my sacrificial love. that I would always remember in 1st Corinthians 7.4 that I do not have authority over my body, my wife does. So I need to be discussing decisions with her. She can't be your helpmate if you don't let her help you. Proverbs 31.28, her children rise up and bless her, her husband also and he praises her. Well, that's, I pray for myself that I would ever be conscious that the children are a blessing and that Eleanor is receiving praises. Proverbs 31, 23, her husband is known in the gates when he sits in the elders of the land. That it's important for me to be an example of leadership and maturity in my relationship with Eleanor. When I go to church with her on Sunday, I don't look like my mommy dressed me. I dress as her spiritual leader. And I dress, I told my son when he began his first job, don't dress for your job, dress for the job you want. Look at your supervisor, how are they dressing? When you go to church, Dr. Arnold, how does the pastor dress? Does he wear a t-shirt? Does he wear shorts? Does he wear blue jeans and flip-flops or tennis shoes? No, he wears a coat and tie, doesn't he? Or he wears formal, traditional dress, doesn't he? He doesn't look like he's going to a game park. And it's important for us as an example to our wife and children to dress appropriately. As if we are, we too are their spiritual leader. Your pastor dresses so that the congregation will respect him as the spiritual leader. We too, I too dress that my wife, my children, my grandchildren would respect me. as their spiritual leader. Notice Proverbs 31 15, I pray this for myself. She rises while it is still night, gives food to her household, and portion to her maidens. People say, why do you pray that for yourself? Eleanor should pray that for herself. No. It is my responsibility to make it possible for Eleanor to obey God in this area, isn't it? To be fiscally responsible and a hard worker so that she can fulfill those responsibilities. 1 Peter 3.7 You husbands likewise live with your wives in an understanding way. And I pray that God would give me patience and understanding. Women are very, very different from men. And it's important for me to become a student so that I can understand her better in order to minister to her. That I do so as a weaker vessel, I grant her honor as a precious jewel. She is a fellow heir of the grace of life. I always keep before me that she is God's child before she was my wife. And when I die, she will return to God. I am a temporary steward of her. And if I am not faithful in that stewardship, my prayers will be shut down because I will want to be talking to God. about my health, my job, my ministry, my career, my desires. And God will not want to listen to that. He will want to talk to me about how I'm treating my wife. So that's very important, isn't it? So I have these verses for me. That's just a sampling of them. And I work through them. It's hard to be a bad husband when you are praying every day over the commands of God in terms of being a good husband. This missionary whose wife is going to a different church, it's actually a cultic church. It's actually a sect. It didn't just happen overnight. He was distracted. His interests were not divided between ministry and home. He was single-minded in his care of the ministry and his home fell apart. I don't ever want that to happen to me. So I will keep one eye on the ministry and my career, and I will keep the other eye on Eleanor and my ministry to her. Then I have verses on me being a good father and grandfather. Deuteronomy 4 and 9 only give heed to yourself and keep your soul diligently so that you do not forget the things which your eyes have seen and they do not depart from your heart all the days of your life but make them known to your sons and your grandsons now when my children were in the home it was my responsibility to bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord but now that job has passed to Sam and Ann, to Rebecca and Aaron, to Joe and Lizzie, to Megan and Jason. They are responsible for their children, but I still want to be a witness and an example to my grandchildren. Psalm 48, 12 says, so that you may tell it to the next generation. And so I pray that. Proverbs 17.6 says, grandchildren are the crown of old men and the glory of sons is their father. And one of the things I pray is that I will not be an embarrassment to my children by my behavior later in life. That I will finish my walk with God when my mind or body fails and I enter heaven strong and with a strong testimony. Dr. Arnold, look at 2 Timothy 2.22, please. 2 Timothy 2.22. Flee from willful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace. among those who call on the Lord for intercession. So you don't have to be youthful to engage in youthful pursuits and sins. And so I ask God that as I age, that I would age with maturity and dignity as an example to my wife and my children. Psalm 92, 14, 15, they will still yield fruit in old age to declare that the Lord is upright. I've logged in my three score and 10 that have been promised me. I am now functioning in the red. God may I have friends my age who have Alzheimer's who can't even read the Bible. I have friends my age who have died of heart attacks. I have friends my age who have had strokes and although they are mentally alert physically they have experienced extensive paralysis and of course cannot minister. Debilitating diseases where they cannot minister, arthritis where they cannot minister. I thank God that at this time of my life, I still can. And I ask that as long as he grants grace, I would be fruitful and that I would declare that the Lord is upright. Proverbs 13.22 says a good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children. I want to behave in a fiscally responsible manner so that Eleanor is cared for after my death and that upon her death, there is even something left over for her to share with her grandchildren, to leave behind. I have a will. I hope you have a will, Dr. Arnold. It's clear that all of your possessions go to your wife should you die. All of them. Anything that you have, that you own, should be in her name also. My home is in my name and Eleanor's name. Our car is in my name and Eleanor's name. All of our bank accounts are in my name and her name. All our debit card is in my name and her name. I do not have any secret holdings. All of our retirement and social security, everything is shared equally. And I have already discussed this with my son, and if I die before she does, he's to make sure that members of the family don't come raid the house and take things away from her. And that in her time of grief, she does not, is not taken advantage of by the church to put on big five day party and spend money she doesn't have. No, the church takes care of widows, widows don't take care of the church. So I want to make sure she is cared for. Proverbs 27, a righteous man who walks in integrity, how blessed are his sons after him. And I don't want my life to ever be a cause for shame or embarrassment to my son after I'm gone. So, these are just a few of the verses that I pray for my role as father and grandfather. Then I have verses about the aging process, okay? You don't have to worry about that. So, but these verses, I pray for God, that God would bless me and keep me strong. For instance, Isaiah 46, 3 and 4, to your old age, I will be the same, even to your graying years, I will bear you, I will carry you, I will bear you, I will deliver you. I'm asking God to do that. 1 Timothy 4, 7 and 8, I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course. I've kept the faith. In the future, there's laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge will award me on that day. And not only to me, but all those who have left his appearing. And I pray, I work my way down to this verse and ask God that when my time comes to die and enter into my reward, I would have that same testimony as Paul. I ask God to preserve me. I ask God to help me to be a wise steward. 1 Timothy 5a, if anyone does not provide for his own, especially for those of his household, he is denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. My interests need to be divided with my finances. Before I made a contribution to your education, Eleanor and I looked at our budget and made sure I did not take her food money, her rent money, her shoe money, her medical money, her retirement money, money that should be going to bless her and give it to you. No, God gave us increase and we had it and we were happy to give it to you. But if I were to take her money and not provide for her, I would be worse than an unbeliever. So I don't do that. I would encourage you to sit down with your wife and look at your finances and then reflect on your giving and then make sure that you are not giving that which belongs to your wife. Remember, your giving is divided, isn't it? Your interests are divided. Let's go back to 1 Corinthians 7. 1 Corinthians 7, verse 4. Would you read that first, please? The wife does not have the right over her own body that a husband does. In the same way, the husband does not have the right over his own body that his wife does. Okay, so it's not yours. And remember, Ephesians 5.28 says you are to love your wife as your own body. That's one of the verses I pray over. Ephesians 5 28 so just like you care for your own body you have to care for her equally now read verse 33 but Marek man is concerned about the things of the world how he may please his wife now and now read the first part of verse 34 interest of the white people. No, it doesn't say you are worldly in terms of loving the world. It says though that you are worldly in terms of fiscal management. You are not free to be single-minded in your money as it pertains simply to the ministry. Because your wife is part of your ministry. It's like saying, yes, I'm a very good steward in terms of my ministry. I make sure my wife is clothed, fed, sheltered. Of course, my children live out on the street. Well, no, they don't. Fiscal responsibility to your family includes your children. That pie has to be divided up so that everybody in your family is cared for. Well, your fiscal pie as it pertains to your life also has to be divided. It cannot just be the ministry. It has to also pertain to your wife, your children, So you have to look at your giving. And you don't say to yourself, well, I'm depriving the Lord of my giving this month to provide school fees and clothing for my children. No. Not if providing school fees and clothing for your children is the Lord's ministry, is it? That's like saying, instead of giving to this missionary, I'm depriving the Lord of his money because I'm giving to another missionary. No, you're still giving. It's just to a different person. But it's still giving to the Lord because you are required to do that ministry. So there is no guilt. in giving, considering your family's needs as part of your giving to the Lord. In fact, 1st Timothy 5a says if you don't conduct your finances that way, you're worse than an unbeliever. That means if you listen to these pastors and false apostles and false prophets and supervisors and giving program directors and give all your money to churches and Christian organizations so that your wife and children suffer. God doesn't accept that money. He views it as sin because you're responsible to care for them. Does that make sense? Then I have my extended family I pray for. There's my sister, you know her, my brother-in-law, and there are my three nephews, and I pray for them. And then here is my brother Rob, his wife Karen, and there is my niece, my nephew, my two other nieces, I pray for them. Then I pray for Eleanor's extended family. And so those are my prayers for my family, my wife, my children, and my extended family. Children, grandchildren, extended family. I pray for my pastor. I pray for the church that I attend and the ministry of Grace Community International. I have extensive prayer sheet on that. I pray for missionaries. 2 Corinthians 1.11 says when I am praying for a missionary, I am joining them in helping them. So we have two key phrases here. One is join. We are co-laborers with the ministry that we pray for and we are helping. We make a difference in their life. There's a lot of false guilt associated with mission work because people are made to feel guilty because they are not actually on the mission field. You can be on the mission field through prayer. I allow the Word of God to guide me in my prayer for missionaries. Ephesians 6, 18-20 is a prayer request of Paul the missionary. 2 Thessalonians 3, 1 and 2, a prayer request of Paul the missionary. Philemon 1, 22, a prayer request of Paul the missionary. I pray for the government. 1 Timothy 2, 1 and 2, That's in my prayer notebook. And Proverbs 21.1 is a very common prayer that I am using when I am going on a mission trip. The king's heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord. He turns it wherever he wishes. And because God has faithfully honored my recognition of this, I've never paid a bribe In the 29 countries that we've served with, all and none of these do I count as what I would say are European, American, British. These are countries, most of which where a bribery is a lifestyle. But we never have. And God has, we've never had to lie on our visa. So by praying for the government, it keeps me from having to sin to go the mission field. Are we to sin so that grace may abound? Paul says, nah, may it never be. You don't sin so grace may abound. May it never be that we sin so grace may abound." So I don't have to because I pray for these governments and God answers the prayers or shuts the door. I pray for the lost, Romans 10.1, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they might be saved. Now then the question arises in our intercessory prayers Can we confess the sins of our family, our ministry, and our nation? Dr. Arnold, would you read 1 Timothy 2.5, please? 1 Timothy 2, verse 5, please. I'm making a note here to cut and paste these verses and send them to you. Okay. Who is the only mediator in the church age between God and man? Jesus. It doesn't say that he is one of the mediators. He is the only mediator. So we are not able to function as mediators for our family, the way Abraham was or the way Job did, for our ministry, the way Samuel did for our nation, the way David and the prophets did by confessing their sins. Now it is the universal priesthood of the believer is a fact. 1st Peter 2.9. Would you read that please? but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. See, we have the authority for proclamation, but not the mediatorial role of old covenant priests. Do you see that there? We can, as priests, as new covenant priests, we have the authority to proclaim. But we do not, but the mediatorial role has been fulfilled by, is in Christ alone. Look at Hebrews 4.16. Would you read that, Dr. Arnold? Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need. As a priest, we may go confidently to the Holy of Holies, but what? We may receive mercy. We may find grace, but we are not a dispenser of it. We do not have the authority to give the grace of God, to give the mercy of God. Some bishops think they have the authority to lay hands on people and install or imbue them with their gifts and calling. No, that comes from God. Roman Catholic priests view themselves as a mediator, that they have the authority to extend the mercy of God. No, that's not true. We receive mercy. We find grace. but we cannot receive and then dispense in the name of God." Romans 14, 12, each one, see what that says? Each one of us must give an account of himself to God. No one can do it for us. In the new covenant, we may pray for others, but we cannot confess their sins. And I've been at conferences and churches where they've sought to confess the sin of their nation. You can't do that. I mean, you can, but God's not going to forgive the sins of people in your estate, in your city, or your nation, because you are confessing them. Each individual must hear for themselves. You cannot hear for them. They must believe for themselves. You cannot believe for them. They must individually receive Christ. You cannot do this for them by baptizing them as a Christian, as a baby, or as the Mormons do after they're dead. Each individual must repent and confess. You cannot repent and confess for your wife, for your children. The patriarchal role is no longer in effect in the new covenant. Each individual must be baptized. You cannot baptize your child. Your child must make that decision on their own. Each individual must walk with God. You cannot do that for them. All and all other aspects of the Christian life must be done for himself. Another may not do these things for him. We can pray for our wife, We can pray for our children, we can pray for our family, our nation, our church, our world, but we cannot confess their sins and then they receive forgiveness of their sins based on our mediatorial role. They must do this for themselves. May God add his blessing on his holy word. In Christ's name I pray, amen.