Please turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Romans chapter 15. I'll be reading verses 30 through 33. Now I beg you brethren through the Lord Jesus Christ, and through the love of the Spirit that you strive together with me in prayers to God for me, that I may be delivered from those in Judea who do not believe, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, that I may come to you with joy by the will of God, and may be refreshed together with you. Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen. The role of intercessory prayer in ministry is our topic. And in verses 30 through 33, this is what the Apostle Paul brings out in our text. It is the capstone, the conclusion of an argument he has been making in Chapter 15, but also is very much part of a larger context that began at Chapter 12 in terms of his focus on practical Christianity. The first 11 chapters lay a doctrinal foundation, and beginning at Chapter 12, he applies what we have learned in the first 11 chapters. He also brings up many other Christian duties in a practical way. The first 13 verses of chapter 15 talk about the Christians' relationships and verses 14 through 21 talk about our service to the Lord, describing the character of that service. Verses 22 through 29 talk about the disposition of the believer in our service and in our relationship with one another. And now in verses 30 through 33, continuing to move inwardly and subjectively in applying so much of what we have studied already in the context, we learn about Christian intercession. role as high print not high priest but as priest we have a very critical place in the kingdom of god and it is the role of praying for others it is very much at the core and center of our service to god of what we offer to god in terms of supplications and prayers and intercessions praying for other people i think it's apparent to many of us that there has been a progression in chapter 15, the Lord moving from the general to the specific and from the outward duties and service to the inward relationship. And obviously, our union with God and the grace that He supplies for us, all based on the atoning, sanctifying work of Christ, is really the spring from which we launch out in service. The Lord Jesus Christ is the foundation. He is central and supreme in everything that we are and in every way that we serve Him. He is the center of our life and through the foundation, through Him, through his person and work and the grace he ministers to us through an understanding and an experience of Christ, we receive the strength to be able to minister to him in all of the ways that the apostle has described in chapter 15 or beginning at chapter 12. So everything in the chapter has been moving towards intercession, which is one of the most unselfish, pure, altruistic forms of service to God and service to our fellow man possible. Praying for one another, praying for another person, whether it be a stranger, a fellow believer, a family member, or anyone else. It is one of the highest callings, one of the most unselfish duties that God has given to us as His priests, as those who offer up spiritual sacrifices to Him. So intercessory prayer causes our relationships to glorify God. That's what he's talking about in the first 13 verses. If in our relationships through the mind and heart of Christ, through the grace of Christ, the power of Christ, we're able to maintain godly relationships, this brings glory to God. And intercessory prayer, like I said, is one of the purest types of service. And God wants the purest disposition on the part of the believer where the Holy Spirit is free to move inwardly, to lead, to guide, to prompt the right thoughts and the right attitudes towards God and towards man as we offer up this intercessory service on behalf of others. With that introduction I direct your attention to our first point which will continue today which is Paul's plea for intercessory prayer in verse 30. It really is a plea. The apostle is humbling himself into the dust And he says, now I beg you brethren through the Lord Jesus Christ and through the love of the spirit that you strive together with me in prayers to God for me. Now Paul begins the teaching on intercessory prayer with four compelling reasons why we should pray for him, why the Roman Christians in the historical context should pray for him. And the first reason we see in the first statement of the verse is Paul's pleading. Paul's pleading itself is a major motivation for intercessory prayer. He says, now I beg you. He's begging them. This is no mean person. This is no person of small stature, position, and authority in the Church of Jesus Christ. This is no one less than the Apostle Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles. It's amazing that when you consider how much God did through this one man converted from a religion that was antithetical and antagonistic to the Lord Jesus Christ and to the kingdom of God, that God plucked the Apostle Paul from among the enemies of God to serve him and to make him, to put him in the highest office in the church at that point as an apostle. as an apostle, for Paul to humble himself and beg the church for his prayers is a huge statement. And as I went through verse 30, I picked up four things, four motivations, why the Apostle Paul wants us, like him, to pray for others. Like him, who desired and coveted the prayers of others. He says, I beg you, How important are the prayers of God's people for Paul? Well, apparently they're very important. They're so important that he begged them for their prayers. It's not unbecoming of an apostle to beg when it comes to the need of prayer. That says something about how badly we need prayer from other people. It says something about how important the ministry of intercessory prayer is in the local church. So I ask you to re-examine and re-evaluate your ministry, because you are a priest in the kingdom of God called and chosen to offer up prayers and supplications and intercessions for others. I call you today as my dear friends and brethren, sisters in Christ, to re-evaluate the ministry of intercessory prayer in your life, comparing it to what scripture says and to make adjustments where needed because it's a huge, hugely important ministry to God. And he's given it to us in the local church for some very, very important reasons. And I encourage you to make any lifestyle changes and adjustments as necessary to conform to the biblical norm and role that all of us have as intercessors. So much of the power Paul needed to produce spiritual fruit, so much of the grace of God that Paul needed to fulfill his ministry, So much of the guidance and protection Paul needed on his journeys to do the work of the Lord, to be successful in God's eyes in bringing forth the fruit of souls saved, required doors to be opened, clear pathways and passageways on his journey. He needed places to stay. He needed walls to be torn down. He needed open doors and audiences with kings and with lowly people. in sharing the gospel and in fulfilling God's purpose for him and his ministry. And Paul did not make this huge assumption that the grace would just be given unilaterally, vertically from God without the help of other people. And in verse 30 we learn how important it is for us to do our part and to do the job God has given to us as spiritual intercessors. Because God has chosen, listen, God has chosen and ordained certain means to bring about His will. to accomplish his purposes. And one of those ordained means is intercessory prayer. And a prayerless church is not going to be as blessed and as useful in the service of God without being an intercessory church, because there are certain things that God has determined will come to pass as He uses His people as a channel, as a tool to pray for those things in the lives of others to come to pass. We see this in verse 30. It's very clear. And in verse 31, Paul needed the prayers of the saints. And all of these things that God had called him to do, it wasn't enough for him to accomplish it through the normal provision of grace directly from God into his heart. Even the great apostle Paul was jealous for the prayers of the lowliest saints. Because Paul knew that God had chosen intercessory prayer for this purpose. So we find him not just asking with dignity, respecting his office as an apostle, but casting off any kind of ministerial respectability, he begs the saints, the believers, to pray for him. So, for those who are thinking, well, what about God's sovereignty? God's sovereignty, God's plan, rather, is going to come to pass no matter what we do. Is it not? Does it really matter, therefore, if we pray, or if we labor, or if we work? God is above all of man's efforts. His will will be done one way or the other. Well, if you understand that God's plan very much includes God's people, and this is one of the greatest aspects of the condescending grace of God, is that He has chosen us to accomplish some of the most sacred and gloriously holy tasks that in the end will redound to the glory of God. He's chosen to accomplish this through his people as weak and as needy and as insufficient as we are in and of ourselves. When you understand this, you will understand why the Apostle Paul begs here for their prayers. You see, the sovereignty of God is not in conflict with intercessory prayer. as a means, a chosen means of accomplishing God's will. Human responsibility where God commands of us some things is not an option. Paul understood that God works through the supplications of his saints. to accomplish his will in the world. And this is seen in his epistles. For example, when you look at 2 Thessalonians 3, 1 and 2, Paul says, Finally, brethren, pray for us. that the word of the Lord may run swiftly and be glorified just as it is with you, and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men, for not all have faith." Two things he pleads with the Thessalonian believers to pray for concerning him. That his ministry of teaching and preaching would accomplish God's purpose for it in the saving of souls and in the building up of the saints. He wants to see the Word of God through his preaching ministry to run swiftly and be glorified, not to be held back and hindered and cast to the ground. He requires and desires the prayers of God's saints that the Word of God would go forth and glorify God and accomplish the purpose for which it is sent. And then in 2 Corinthians 1, 8-11, it says, For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia. that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life. Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death and does deliver us, in whom we trust that he will still deliver us. you also helping together in prayer for us. Now in the previous text in verse 2 of 2 Thessalonians 3, the second request that he asked of the Thessalonian believers was that they would intercede on his behalf regarding unreasonable and wicked men who would hinder the work of the Lord. he asks prayers that he would be delivered from the obstacles that these wicked men would throw in the path of the apostle as he serves the Lord. And then in the second text, the apostle somehow experienced such great affliction inwardly and outwardly that his trial was so great he couldn't handle it. It was above measure, above strength, humanly and spiritually. like an echo of the Lord Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane who prayed, take this cup from me, but not as I will, but thou will be done, where his humanity was stretched to the breaking point. In similar fashion, the Apostle Paul was going through trials such that he couldn't handle it physically and emotionally and spiritually. He had the sentence of death in him. And his circumstances were bearing heavily upon that human weakness, that sentence of death in him. And he wanted to be delivered from so great a death. And he says, you also helping together in prayer for us. So we see intercessory prayer as a vital partner with the gospel. as it goes forth. The saints praying for various men and women in their ministry of evangelism, of missions, of proclaiming the gospel. We see the saints of a local church praying for all sorts of things, not only for the success of the gospel, but also for the health of those who are sick, for spiritual healing, physical comfort, emotional consolation, But the intercessory prayers of the church is a vital designed tool for the accomplishment of God's purposes. And so Paul's pleading for their prayers at the end of chapter 15. Very much, I believe, is based on Paul's experience of how critical intercessory prayer is. When people prayed for Paul, God helped him, and he knew that, and he sensed that, and he investigated very, maybe in a superficial way, and traced back the source, the human source of those prayers. His experience of being delivered from much trouble and persecution and affliction taught him the value of intercessory prayer and constantly asked for prayer from the brethren. This is no light matter, especially as many of us as members of Christ's Bible Church re-evaluates our relationship to intercessory prayer. Do we have an option to absent ourselves from our prayer closets? Do we have an option to absent ourselves from the prayer meetings? No. We're commanded to pray. Read 1 Timothy 2. Paul says, I say, and I think it's according to the will of God, that you offer up prayers and supplications for all that are in authority and for kings and priests and so forth. That's the first reason. The fact that he begged them shows us how important intercessory prayer is. Paul understood in his own life and ministry the value of intercessory prayer and how God uses it to bring about and accomplish his will. Second reason why Paul requests prayer of the Roman Christians and why intercessory prayer is important is because of Paul's affectionate appeal. We see this in one word. He says, brethren, now I beg you, brethren. Now upon superficial examination, one would say, well, he's speaking to Christians. What's the big deal? We know that. But there's a lot more here, and I spent a lot of time looking into this. What is he doing here? Why does he bring up the word brethren here? He's brought it up before and previously in Romans. We know he's speaking to Christians. Well, the term brethren is one of four terms he's using to move them, to motivate them to pray for him. The word brethren is a very intimate word. He's appealing to them. on the grounds of his spiritual union with them as a brother in Christ. He uses the tenderest language he can here, brethren. You know, there are 350 instances of this Greek word in the New Testament, brethren. And they generally fall into three categories, three categories of use. The first category is a physical brother. When someone is speaking of brethren, they're referring to having the same mother and father, physically speaking. Jesus had brethren after the flesh. We see that two of the apostles were brothers, at least two, perhaps more, James and John. So the first time we see the word brethren, the first category is brethren after the flesh. The second category, and we're moving progressively towards the highest form of what it means to be a brother with someone or a sister. The second category is brethren used as referring to fellow countrymen, a member of the same country and religion in the broad ethnic sense of brotherhood. Of course, the example is Israel. This idea of brotherhood was used by the Jews and later formed a part of the New Testament community or understanding of what community is. This Old Testament idea of the Jews being part of a broad, a very large ethnic religious community of brethren. Well, there were three million of them. in that that wider sense they were all brethren of course still mostly physically after the flesh they all went back to to Abraham they're all tied back through genealogy to Abraham but they shared the same religion though most of them were not converted they yet they shared the same name so in that ethnic sense, that fraternal sense of being part of the same religion, of the same larger, wider family, in a physical sense, they were brethren. That's the second way the term brethren is used in the Bible. The third way is that of spiritual brotherhood. Now the writers of the New Testament use family language here, brethren, to describe this spiritual brotherhood. Believers are described as sons, as daughters, as part of a family. We're described as children, children of God, who belong to the household of faith. God is our Father, to whom we cry, Abba Father. Christ's relationship to His disciples is that of a brother, is it not? besides him being Lord, and all the other wonderful titles and offices and roles he has. So, an example of this spiritual relationship that we have with one another in this family, where we call each other brethren, and it should be a heartfelt palpable experience. When I look at Harry back there, even though culturally and ethnically. We're as far as east is from the west. I'm a Jew from Brooklyn. He's from the Midwest. I'm white, he's black. But we're brothers. So there needs to be this palpable sense that the Holy Spirit creates within our hearts. That in the family of God, in the Church of Christ, there is no curler line. When the Holy Spirit reminds me, as only He can, that this man is my brother, I feel love for him. I don't care who he is, where he's from. So that's the kind of spiritual brotherhood I'm talking about. And an example of this spiritual relationship is when Jesus was informed. Remember that his mother and his brothers were looking for him? And he responded by giving a lesson about his spiritual brethren. He said, Who is my mother and my brothers but they that do the will of God? So this spiritual brotherhood that ties us together is this common faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit affirms within our hearts where we hold most things in common and we have love for one another. Of course, in Romans 1530, our text, Paul addresses the Christians in Rome as spiritual brethren. But Paul adapted and modified the Jewish concept of brethren As close as, humanly speaking, human beings can get to one another, tied together by the common religion, common ancestry, yet there's still something huge that's missing when we talk about spiritual brotherhood. But the Jews got as close as they could get in their fraternity, tied back to Abraham. But the apostle Paul did adapt and modify this Jewish concept of brethren as fellow ethnic countrymen to the Christian faith, and he added a huge dimension. That really was not there in experience and practicality in day-to-day Jewish life. And that is love for the brethren, this spiritual brotherhood that we have with one another. Loving one another with agape love, which increases the dimension of love that human beings can have and demonstrate towards one another infinitely. The more agape love we have for one another, the closer I can become to my fellow man, even though we may be miles apart in background. But here in Romans 1530, as in 130 other places in his epistles, Paul elevated the expression brother to indicate a vital relationship rather than just using it as a term for convenience or friendship. Paul still considered Jews to be natural brothers. In one of his sermons in the book of Acts, addressing the Jews, he said, men and brethren. But he wasn't referring to them in that word brethren, like you and I use that term with each other. He uses it in the sense of natural brothers, ethnic brothers. Paul still considered them to be natural brothers, but he opens up here a truth in Romans 1530 of spiritual brotherhood and deepens the importance of it. And Paul is appealing to them. on this basis. He's addressing the spiritual aspect of brotherhood here. And this is very important and very powerful because he's using it to appeal to them. He's saying, look, you're my brethren. Spiritually, we're tied together by deeper roots and deeper anchors than any natural or fleshly tie, humanly speaking. You're my brethren spiritually and God gives you gifts and graces to be able to care about me and what I'm going through and my needs in such a deeper way to be able to pray for me as an intercessor than any natural ties can motivate someone to pray for them. Are you hearing what I'm saying? and I look out at the church today and I don't see intercessory prayer generally speaking, generally not, let me qualify my words here, generally speaking intercessory prayer is on the wane. Look at the size of prayer meetings even of many larger churches and I've heard reports of just two and three and five and ten show up where there's thousands, but the coffee bars in the lobby are full. Now I'm not trying to just give you a guilt trip. It's easy to do. I'm trying to draw attention to something here in our text that the Holy Spirit put here for a very important reason. And the Apostle Paul is making this point about intercessory prayer very personal. He's drawing in his own experience to reinforce what he's teaching for a very important reason. You see, the spiritual brotherhood ties in very powerfully to the second greatest commandment. If you love God, you're going to have intercessory prayer in your life. If you love your brother, your sister, you're going to be an intercessory prayer warrior. Love for God and love for one another manifests itself in many different ways, and one of those ways is intercessory prayer. If you're concerned about the glory of God in many different situations, and people around you are marring and tearing down His glory, you're gonna be praying for them, for their salvation, that the glory of God would remain intact in the end. And if you love people the way the Holy Spirit wants you and me to love them, others will be the object of your prayers. and your prayer closets more than yourselves and your own needs. Therefore, the New Testament writers modified an already existing Jewish concept of fraternity and transformed it into a lifestyle characterized by love when we pray for one another. Love for the brethren, then, must move beyond the four walls of the church building. where Christianity is no better than any of the world's religion. It must move us to pray for one another. Only by demonstrating love as Christ demonstrated on the cross will others know that Christians are his brothers and sisters. The ability to call God Abba Father has been made possible through Christ, who reconciles sinners to God through his atoning death. And this salvation and saving faith in Christ makes believers children of God. We become something that is awesome. We become God's children. No other creature is a child of God except the children of God. And as children, we are brothers and sisters to one another and to Christ. So when Paul appeals to the Roman Christians for their prayers for him, it's in the sense of being spiritually united to one another in the same spiritual family that he appeals to them. This is a very powerful appeal that they cannot lightly ignore. Paul is their brother, and their brother is in serious need, and he's asking them for their prayers. And we could see that in the book of Acts, Paul reports, and in other places, in his epistles, that he was delivered time and time again, partially because of the instrumentality of the prayers of God's people. I don't know what ministry God has called you to, but I know intercessory prayer has to be high up there, high up there on the list. Amen? The third reason why Paul asked for prayer is love for Christ. Look at verse 30. He says, through the Lord Jesus Christ, I beg you, that's the first motivation, brethren, term of endearment, through the Lord Jesus Christ. Now this means out of love for Christ. where to pray for one another out of love to Christ. He's saying if you love the Lord Jesus Christ, you love to see Him praised and glorified. If you intercede for Paul, if you intercede for another believer, if the Romans intercede for Paul, if you intercede for another believer and God answers those prayers, Christ will be exalted in one way or another and His kingdom will be expanded. But the driving reason for the prayer is love for Christ. And that love is bound up in the phrase, through the Lord Jesus Christ. When we do something through Christ, if our motivation in serving Him is tied to the Lord Jesus Christ, you know you will have the purest of motives. And certainly love for Christ. To see him glorified is one of the highest and the highest motivation. And so he directs the readers, the hearers in Rome, to the Lord Jesus Christ. He appeals to them and he says, look, I beg you to pray for me through the Lord Jesus Christ. When Christ is brought into the equation as to whether or not the saints at Rome will pray for Paul and his needs. Somewhere in there, as those believers think about the reasons related to Christ, why they should pray for Paul, they're gonna be motivated. if your mind and mine is drawn back to the cross and we recall that Christ died for me he sacrificed his all for me how infinitely inferior to that ultimate great act of our Lord Jesus vicariously substitutionally in our place is is my prayer is my prayer for another person If the Lord laid his life down for me, the least I should do is to sacrifice my life in one way or another, time, blood, sweat and tears in the prayer closet, praying for others. We read, if anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. Love for Christ is to drive the engine of our service. and we've got to be motivated by love. 2 Corinthians 5.14 says, for the love of Christ compels us, constrains us. How often is love at the helm of our spiritual ship, steering us and driving us forward in our service to God and to one another. John 21 15, remember when Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon son of Jonah, do you love me more than these? He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, feed my lambs. Love for Christ should drive our service and our prayers. The fourth reason why Paul asked for prayer is he wants their prayers to be offered with agape love. The next phrase says, and through love of the spirit. This means the love given by the spirit, not love for the spirit himself, but the original clearly points us to the clear meaning, which is the love of God given to us by the Holy Spirit. Paul wants the prayers of the Roman believers to be driven by the love of God shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Spirit. You know, one of the most pathetic things imaginable is praying for somebody when You know that that prayer needs to be driven by love for them, by pathos, by compassion, with tears and grief and heartfelt expressions of concern that consume you, right? But sometimes we just don't have the love of the Spirit when we pray for people. So we're praying for them. concerning some of the most heart-wrenching things with a mechanical tone, with really a mental and almost a spiritual detachment. We pray for some people because we know we should pray for them, driven by guilt perhaps or other reasons rather than by love, right? Paul teaches us something very important about intercessory prayer. It needs to be offered with agape love, through the love of the Holy Spirit. A perfect example of this is found in Ephesians 3.14. I'll read it for the sake of time and following. For this reason, he says, I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man. So the Holy Spirit is being brought into the picture here, that Christ may dwell into your hearts through faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge. So Paul's prayer for the Ephesians, he bows his knee that they would know the love of God as inflamed and ignited by the Holy Spirit. And of course, he's consistent with his teaching that God had given to him. And he says basically the same thing in Romans 1530, through the love of the Spirit. He's begging for their prayers, but they need to be offered through the love of the Spirit, agape love. There's nothing like the flames of agape love to turn our dull prayers into prayers that will not let God go until He blesses, until He hears us. And then, the end of the verse concludes with this phrase, that you strive together with me in prayers to God for me. Now in the original Greek, this is a very profound phrase, strive together, especially the word strive. So Paul is saying to them this, look I'm praying, I'm praying about these things, but I'm asking you, you believers in Rome, to strive with me, together, we're in this together. But the word strive together means he wants the character of their prayers to be the same. Paul is going to be praying with fervency. He's going to be praying with supplication. He's going to be offering up these contractions in the Spirit to the Lord. There's going to be fervency there as the Holy Spirit helps him to pray as he ought to pray in the Spirit. And he says to the Romans, look, let's pray together like this. Let's pray according to the same character in our prayers. Those are the kinds of prayers that will be answered. where he says, if two of you shall agree as touching anything on earth, it shall be done on heaven. There is a greater power to cumulative prayers. That is, collectively, when the saints pray together and agree together and exercise faith together. Of course, if we pray according to the will of God, that will be done. It will be accomplished on earth as it is in heaven. But in the original, This phrase, strive together, suggests an athlete giving his best in the contest. Now, I know of no athlete in a contest that trains to come in last. Every one of them trains to come in first. And that level of training will be described with great exertion. Because to come in first, you gotta push yourself just a little bit more than all the rest. right to win the prize now another good expression for strive together is wrestling together in the greek it gives the idea of really wrestling with these issues similar to the idea and and the same uh... idea of of two things in particular first of all jacob who wrestled with the angel he was physically uh... handicapped for the rest of his life at the end of that all night prayer session with the angel as it were the angel touched his hip and he limped for the rest of his life now maybe that's a metaphor that physical handicap and hurt was a metaphor of the kind of striving the kind of agony we need to be in in prayer now this is not forced emotions we're not talking about working up some esoteric mysterious cosmic false form of emotionalism that would be like a pseudo-striving. No. A false striving. No. We're talking about a striving in prayer that is persistent, will not let God go, and is characterized by almost a full use of emotions in the full scale and spectrum of those emotions. all engaged, fully in use, affections, tears, emotions, intelligence, all the various aspects of our judgment and reason and mental and spiritual faculties being in full use, anointed with fervency by the Holy Spirit. with waves of contractions, waves of supplications, until at least we have a sense that we were able to cast that burden in prayer upon the Lord, and very often the Lord will give us a token of assurance that He's heard our prayer, while we continue to pray at other times, waiting for the answer. That's the kind of intercessory prayer God calls us to, to strive together. But striving is important in prayer. Epiphras is the best example in the New Testament. Oh, that our prayers would be likened to Epiphras' prayers. We read of him in Colossians 4. Turn with me there. Colossians 4, 12 through 14, Epiphras who is one of you, a bondservant of Christ, greet you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God, for I bear him witness that he has a great zeal for you and those who are in Laodicea and those in Hierapolis." You see, Epaphras' zeal and his love drove his prayers. That is what Paul is talking about in Romans 1530, the love of the Spirit through the Lord Jesus Christ. The love of Christ working hand-in-hand with the power of the Holy Spirit causes us to pray in an effective way where God hears and answers. Here is Epaphras. He has that love. He has the strength of the Spirit. He has the proper motivations, great zeal, great concern, great hope, great desires for the saints in Laodicea and Hierapolis and Colossae. and it says about him that at least perhaps this is part of his ministry that he's always laboring fervently for you in prayers that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God he names three churches that can get off the beaten path when it comes to the will of God and here is a believer who's taken in upon himself to pray that the Colossian believers and those in Hierapolis and Laodicea would be perfect and complete in all the will of God. That intercessory prayer ministry is almost like a last line of defense. If the church is struggling and you know with lukewarmness We all do from time to time. Getting caught up in the world, considering all your options in the world, and getting big eyes again with things in the world, beginning to get comfortable with the world, not taking a strong stand, maintaining clean hands and a pure heart, maintaining strong convictions in the little things as well as the big things. You begin to relax your grip on Christ and become vulnerable to the temptations in the world. Oh, I pray that Christ Bible Church has a last line of defense, that we will have at least one or two epiphrases praying that the members of Christ Bible Church would stand fast and complete in all the will of God. How important therefore is intercessory prayer at Christ Bible Church. We see the church today is in big trouble. intercessory prayer is not what the church in general wants to hear about today. Not gonna be too many amens when we hear about that because it's the hardest thing to do. To have most of the pages in your prayer book or most of the names on your prayer list or things on your prayer list be other people's needs. When there's so much competition for our time every day, You mean I'm gonna go into my prayer closet and take a half hour to an hour when I only have a few hours discretionary time to spend on myself and I'm gonna pray for other people's needs? I say that in the form of a rhetorical question, maybe with a little sarcasm, like Jews often use for various purposes. That's the way some of us think, but we are called, to intercessory prayer. This means that our praying must not be just a casual experience that has no heart, no earnestness, no dedicated time. We should put as much fervor into our praying as a wrestler does in his wrestling, striving, agonizing, struggling in prayers like Jacob offered who wrestled with the angel all night long. So Paul uses these four powerful motivations to inspire the intercessions of the Roman Church for him and his ministry and his needs. He begged them for their prayers. He appealed to them as brethren. He appeals to their heart-to-heart spiritual relationship. He doesn't appeal to their membership as being in the fraternity of the Jews, and we were all bar mitzvahed together, therefore we can all relate to one another. No, he says we're brethren. I am my brother's keeper. I must pray for my brother, for my sister, for the needs of the brethren, whether they're looking or not, whether I'm in prayer meeting or not, because God hears me. God hears me. Are we making it our business, our priority at Christ Bible Church to pray like this? If not, we need to repent. If the majority of the members of Christ Bible Church are struggling like this, then the majority of the members of Christ Bible Church need to repent. for prayerlessness. But there's good news because as we look to the Lord Jesus Christ as our example, we look at Him in His role as High Priest, we see that it is primarily as an intercessor. He forever serves not exclusively but in a very critical and important way as our high priest offering up intercessory prayers. He does so as our advocate, representing us. He prays for, look at our Lord Jesus when he says in 1 John 2 and verse 1, my little children, these things I write to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He uses another term for brethren. He says, my little children, again, a family term to remind us that we are his children, even when we sin. If we're born from above, if we've repented of our sins, given our heart to Christ, our life to Christ, put our trust in Him to regenerate us and give us a new life, forgive us of our sins and to bring us into the kingdom and equip us with His Spirit, His knowledge, His wisdom and raise us from the dead so that we no longer are serving ourselves but we live for the glory of Christ and serve others. We're born from above. Yes, we're sinners, and we do commit individual acts of sins, but we no longer live in that sin. But nonetheless, as his children, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. There's this idea of advocacy, which lies behind the calling and role that we have as intercessors, intercessory prayer. In the very nature of the Godhood, I mean the Godhead, the idea of advocacy, mediation, representation is a critical role that God takes upon himself. Each member of the Godhead has an advocacy role. I don't have the time to go into it right now. I'm winding down here by way of application, pointing us to the Lord Jesus Christ. He has sacrificed everything to be the high priest of our profession. laying his life down to save us as the priest offering up himself as the sacrifice for our sins. But in doing that, he also acted as a mediator, an attorney, one who represents us before God. And that advocacy caused him in his humanity and in his divinity to empty himself so that God will hear him and receive his advocacy on our behalf. Oh, that idea of advocacy lies behind the second greatest commandment. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. It means that you have to renounce your own will, and must be obsessed and consumed with the needs of others, and you must employ every natural and spiritual gift that God has given you, helping you by His Spirit to represent their interest before the throne of grace. You become an advocate on their behalf before the advocate, the Lord Jesus Christ, who in turn prays for them. And in answering our prayers as their advocate, He answers them and helps them. That's a gloriously sacred and high and holy calling that we need to value and esteem and nurture and cultivate with a godly zeal out of love for Christ. And if this truth does not move your heart and melt you to either joy or shame, making adjustments where needed, what will move us? Because we have all the motivation in the world to lay down our lives for others as prayer warriors on their behalf. Our Lord Jesus Christ did the same. When one of our brethren last Sunday, or was it the Sunday before in the scripture reading, read John 17, where our Lord Jesus in His high priestly prayer prayed to the Father and said, Father, I pray not only for them, but for those whom you have given to me that will come to me through them. I know I'm paraphrasing. and it struck me, the Lord Jesus Christ, two thousand years ago, prayed for me, prayed for me, my high priest, my shepherd, John 10, the Lord is my shepherd, as it's tied in to Psalm 23. What is Psalm 23 pointing to? A thousand years later, the birth of the Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep. And what does the shepherd do? He advocates or he sacrifices himself for the sheep. He carries the sheep if necessary. He leads them when they are hungry to the cool waters and the grass. He feeds them. He feeds them. and through Christian intercessory prayer, God does all of those things, saving souls, feeding the sheep, helping the brethren, not because of us as the meritorious or first cause that motivates God to do that. No, Christ's death on the cross alone is the first cause, but he uses instruments and the children of God are the instruments of God to bring about untold blessing in the lives of others as we pray for them and weep tears of mediation on their behalf before the throne of grace. And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, indeed Satan has asked for you that he may sift you as wheat But I have prayed for you that your faith should not fail." Therefore, in all things he had to be made like his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself has suffered, being tempted, he is able to aid those who are tempted. Let us pray. We thank you and praise you our Lord and our great God and King for giving us the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for his example. We thank you for his being our mediator, our advocate, our high priest. the one who loved us and gave himself for us. Oh, how we pray as a church, joined together and agreeing together, heart to heart, that you would make us a house of prayer, that we would be like our Lord Jesus Christ, who went out at night to pray at all hours of the night for others, prayed for Peter that his own faith would not fail, that, oh, we would grasp the vision of devoting much time and much of our ministerial hours to intercessory prayer on behalf of others. Oh Lord, you yourself asked Peter, James, and John to strive together with you in prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, but they fell asleep on their watch. Oh, may we never, may we never completely turn our backs on the ministry of intercessory prayer. May we be reawakened to its importance, be reinvigorated by your grace to approach this great calling in a fresh way. And beginning today, may we reestablish this important ministry in our lives and in this church, for this is our prayer in Jesus.