Teaching | Intercessory Prayer | Prayer E03 (From the Archive)

Hello and welcome to the John Mark Homer Teachings Podcast. My name is Yinka Dawson and I'm your host. Each week we feature teachings by John Mark or other voices in the formation space, and it's wonderful to have you with us. We're continuing our prayer series exploring different types of prayer from the and teachings of Jesus. Compacts intercessory prayer. What it means to make requests to God with

And why prayer is our primary way of collaborating with God to bring justice and goodness into the world. Here's John Mark. Great to see you. Welcome. My name is John Mark. If you're new, we're visiting. Really happy you're here. Hey, please turn your Bibles to Luke chapter eleven.

Um if you need a Bible, just slip your hand up in the air air and one will make its way to you. Can I just say I'm a fan of the codex, like none of this Bible app stuff. That's just You're just asking for distraction and like it's only half as inspired if you read it on an app, you know? Okay, that's not actually true. Um if you have a Bible I really do encourage you to actually

take it with you to church on Sunday nights and uh if you don't have one, just slip your hand up. Luke eleven. At Bridgetown Church, we believe that to follow Jesus, which is what we're all about, is to organize your life around three goals. One is be with Jesus, two is become like Jesus, and three is do what he did. And in order to do that, we believe that we have to

Order organize our lives around a set of practices or what in church history are usually called spiritual disciplines, all of which are based on the life and the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. And each and every one is a means to an end. The end is That last song, the secret place, that's language right out of the teachings of Jesus. This place Where you go with God and are in relationship with

the Father. And so basically what that looks like is every few months we take on a practice from the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. And right now we're a few weeks into a practice on prayer. And each week we're teaching on a different type of prayer on Sunday. And then our Bridgetown community, we practice it. So last week was all in contemplative prayer with Father Gantz.

And up on the docket for this week is intercessory prayer, which just makes me sound really pretentious to say that word. Some of you are thinking, what is intercessory? Well we'll get there in a minute. It's a word that's used in the New Testament. For now, basically it just means asking God to do stuff. Um so let's start off here in Luke chapter eleven verse one. One day Jesus was praying in a certain place.

When he finished, one of his apprentices said to him, Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples. He said to them, Well, when you pray, say, Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, give us each day our daily bread, forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation. Then Jesus said to them, Suppose you have a friend.

And you go to him at midnight, and you say, Friend, lend me three loaves of bread. A friend of mine on a journey has come for me, and I have no food to offer him. And suppose the one inside answers, Don't bother me. The door is already locked. My children and I are in bed. I can't get up and give you anything. I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity, he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.

So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find, knock and the door will be open to you. For every one who asks receives, the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks the door will be opened.

Which of you fathers, if your son asks you for a fish, we'll give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, my kids have never asked me for an egg, but okay. We'll give him a scorpion. If you then, though you are evil, know how to give Good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?

I love that opening line. Lord, teach us to pray. That is essentially our goal in this season at Bridgetown Church, to learn how to pray. For the most part from Jesus of Nazareth. But you know, you don't start with how. I love Simon Seneck's framework of why, what, how. If you don't know about that, Google start with why and Ted Talk, you're welcome.

Here's the deal, it's not just that most of us don't know how to pray. We wake up in the morning and we have a set time and three minutes in our mind is all over the place and we just reach for our phone and defeat. It's deeper than that. It's that a lot of us don't even know what to pray. Like is it okay to pray for myself or do I only have to pray for Gerald? Is it okay, um

to pray for my job interview or a new apartment or a new car if it's elect electric or a hybrid. Is Jesus okay with that? Or does it have to be only for healing or this, that, the other? But it's deeper than that. Honestly, a lot of us don't even know why to pray. Didn't Jesus himself actually say something like the Father knows what you need before you ask him? Which is great, Jesus, but

But that kinda begs the question, why ask in the first place then? So a lot of us don't even get the what or the why behind prayer. All sorts of questions. So here's the deal. Put your finger right here in Luke Luke eleven. We'll come back in just a few minutes and work through Jesus' teaching line by line. First, turn to Genesis chapter one. Let's back up the train and talk about the why and the what.

around prayer before we get to the how of prayer. I want to make three points about prayer from the story that Jesus grew up reading that today we call the Old Testament. First, Genesis chapter one, have a look at verse thirty six. I'm sorry, twenty six. Then God said, Let us make mankind in our image. in our likeness, so that they may what? Rule over the fish and the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock, all the wild animals, over all the creatures.

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image God he created them, male and female he created them. God blessed them and he said to them, Be fruitful, increase in number, fill the earth, and subdue it, and here it is again, rule over the fish in the sea, and the birds in the sky, and over every living creature that moves along the ground.

Point one, if you're taking notes, write this down. God's original intent was for free, intelligent, creative human beings to collaborate with him on running the world. That phrase, the image of God, does not mean what a lot of people think it means. If you were a ancient Near Eastern Hebrew or an Egyptian or a Babylonian, any kind of ancient Near Eastern soul, And you read that phrase, the image of God, you knew exactly what that was. That was the king. One and one and one and only one.

human being and all of the world was the image of God. It was Pharaoh. Pharaoh was called Amun Ra or the image of Ra, the sun god, the head of the Egyptian pantheon. The idea here in this story is that no, all human beings are created in the image of God, not just Pharaoh and his oligarchy. Every man, every woman You were created to rule. That's that next

line to rule over the earth, under God's authority, and over the world itself, to stand at the interface between the creator and the creation. Not as an android with no free will, or as a puppet on a string, but as a royal son or a royal daughter, as a prince, as a princess, to rule with the king of the universe.

over the world. That's to collaborate with God in writing human history. That's what you were created for. But then if you know the story, turn the page, chapter two, have a look at verse fifteen. The Lord God took the man and he put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

And the Lord God commanded the man, You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die. Notice that line, you are free. Humanity is free to choose. between the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And don't get hung up on reading the Bible's literature, is this myth, is this history. Don't get off track here.

The choice is between allegiance to the king and his kingdom, or rebellion against the king and his kingdom. And what does human choose? Tragically, if you turn the page, chapter 3, verse 6. When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked, so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Point two, if you're taking notes, due to the freedom that God built into human nature, the world has gone horribly wrong. The idea here in the story is that perhaps The root problem in the world is not lack of ex access to education or clean water or the wrong type of government or the wrong political power party in power or socioeconomic equality. Those are all symptoms. The root problem is that the human heart

is bent out of shape in the wrong direction. And the rest of the story that we now call the Old Testament is about God's solution to that problem. Turn for one more story to Exodus chapter thirty two. The next book over, Exodus chapter thirty-two. I just want to read over you a well-known story that Jesus would have grown up reading all through elementary school.

As a teenager, as a young man. Exodus chapter 32. Fast forward if you know the story of the Bible. God is starting to kind of put the human project back on track through a family, uh, with uh A man named Abraham and his sons, and his sons sons, and his daughters, and his daughters daughters, and on. and so on and so forth into an entire nation. But we quickly realize that the nation that is supposed to be the solution to the problem is still part of the problem. Chapter thirty two.

When the people saw that Moses was so long and coming down from the mountain, they gathered round Aaron and said, Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses, who brought us up out of Egypt, well we don't know what's happened to him. So classic. Like just no gratitude anymore, you know? Aaron answered him, Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons, and your daughters are wearing, bring them to me. So all the people took their earrings.

brought them to Aaron. He took what they handed him, made it into an idol, cast in the shape of a calf, fashioned it with a tool, Then they said, These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt. Skip down to the end of verse six. Afterwards they sat down to eat and to drink, and got up to indulge in revelry. I'm not exactly sure what revelry is, but I'm pretty sure it's bad. It's like lots of sex and dancing and secular music, you know. Then

The Lord then the Lord said to Moses, some of you are like new to church, you're like, wait, I don't get it. You had to have been there in the eighties, okay? It was a thing. Then the Lord said to Moses, Go down because your people whom you brought up out of Egypt. I love it by the way. Notice God's like, Your people. Those are your people, Moses, not mine. That's like, you know, when your child is misbehaving and you're like, Tammy, that's your side of the family. That is not a comer thing.

That's all how to gee, all right? That's all you. Your people have become corrupt. They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, These are your gods, Israel, brought you up out of Egypt. I have seen these people, the Lord said to Moses, and they are stiff necked people.

Well now leave me alone notice the language here, leave me alone, so that my anger may burn against them, and that I may destroy them, then I will make you into a great nation.

I'll never forget this one time I was in class um with doctor Gary Bashears over at Western Seminary and we were reading through the story and we got to that bizarre line right there. And I remember Gary said in front of the class, this is God processing his emotions with a human partner. And our whole class was like, wait, what? God processing his emotions with a human partner. Yes, that's what it is. It's a conversation with Moses.

God's friend. And that's what prayer is. It's a conversation between God and his friends. Keep reading. 11. Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God. Lord, he said, Why should your anger burn against your people whom you brought out of Egypt? So now it's like the blame game. You brought the people out.

with great power and a mighty hand. Why should the Egyptians say it was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the face off the face of the earth? Turn from your fierce anger, and here's the key word, relent And do not bring disaster on your people.

Oh, remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, Israel, to whom you swore by your own self, I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky. I will give your descendants all this land I promise you, and it will be their inheritance forever, he's quoting God back to God. This is what Christians back in the day used to call contending prayer.

In the Reformation, Martin Luther called it conquering God. Notice that for Moses, prayer is not passive. Okay, God, whatever you want, sort over with me. I am awesome. Okay. No, for him it's it's it's active. He's striving with God. There hear me out here. There is a time to pray, your will be done. And there is a time to argue with God. And say absolutely not, not that. That's not a good idea, God. That can't be right. That can't be your will. That can't that can't be how the story goes.

and to contend with God, to strive, to argue, to lament, to plead your case before God. I love the audacity here. Like you hear this conversation between Moses and God, and it it reads almost like they are on equal footing, but they aren't on equal footing, and that's what makes it so provocative and subversive. There's this elasticity and back and forth dialogue and openness.

to God. And Moses' prayer here is that God would relent. And watch what happens fourteen. Then the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had thrent threatened. That word relented in Hebrew is the word Naham. Can you say that? It's a fascinating word. It can be translated relent. I think that's the best word we have in English for it. It's actually translated all through the NIV as repent, whenever it's used for human beings. That's really interest so God repented.

Or depending on your version of the Bible, it's also translated God changed his mind? So wait a minute, it's saying here that that God Nahamd, he relented, he repented, he changed his mind. I cannot tell you how often I read a scholar or a teacher or whoever

bending over backwards to explain this line away. Well, I know it says that he changed his mind, but obviously he didn't really change his mind like God we know from systematic theology, from Greek philosophy, that God is omniscient, there's nothing he does not know, and he's immutable, he does not change, and yada yada yada. That's funny because it says he changed his mind.

Like it's weird that it doesn't actually mean what it says. That's funny how that works. The reality is God isn't the unmoved mover of Aristotle and Greek philosophy. He is the relational, dynamic, back and forth argue and attempt with Moses, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

In the language of Jesus, he is a father who responds when his children pray. And this is not a lower view of uh lower view of God, but a higher view of God. He would be less of a God if he were not open to good ideas from free, intelligent, creative beings that he's in relationship with. I would be less of a father if I said to Jude, Moses, and Sunday, What do you guys want to do today? I don't actually mean that. Only I know what's fun to do.

Right? And if Moses had an idea and I said, I'm sorry, uh that I did not generate that, clearly it's a bad idea. No that I would be less of a father. The theologian Karl Barth called this the holy mutability of God. The holy mutability of God. Prayer can move God's heart and with it move God's hand. Meaning your life is going one way, you pray, God responds and it goes another way.

You're on one trajectory, you pray, God responds, and now you're on another trajectory. In fact there are stories all through the Old Testament where that happens and it's a bit scary. Be careful what you pray for. God might actually say yes to it. Now thankfully he's a good loving father who knows when to say yes and when to say no, but you have a role to play.

Prayer is just this. It's talking with God about what the two of you are doing together. And you play a key role in human history. All of that leads me to point three, and it's this. Prayer is a relational collaboration whereby we join with God to put the world to right. It is how we take up our rightful place in the image of God as royal sons and royal daughters and we collaborate with God in running the world to bend human history in the right direction.

The French philosopher Blaise Pascal, also a mathematician, just a genius of a man, said this about prayer. God has instituted prayer so as to confer upon his creatures the dignity of being causes. Now three of you are philosophy majors and you love that. Everybody else is like, What does that mean?

Um Sky Gitani, a friend of mine and one of my favorite writers right now, he interprets Pascal this way quote We are not merely passive set pieces in a prearranged cosmic drama, but we are active participants with God in the writing, directing, design, and action that unfolds. Prayer, therefore, is much more than asking God for this or that outcome. It is drawing into communion with Him.

And they're taking up our privileged role as his people. In prayer, we are invited to join him in directing the course of his world. I love that last line. In prayer, we are invited to join him in directing the course of his world. So, to recap, one.

God's original intent was for free intelligent creative human beings to collaborate with Him on running the world. Two, due to the freedom that God built into the human nature, the world has gone horribly wrong. If you don't believe me, read the comments on YouTube. Three. Prayer, which is like the cesspool of Western civilization, all right? Prayer is a relational exchange whereby we join with God to put the world to rights. Now, this is the story that Jesus grew up reading.

That the odds are he put to memory by the time he was a teenager. Yes, Gen it was an oral culture, he was a rabbi, Genesis to Malachi memorized. And it's the story that shaped Jesus' view view of prayer

in general and intercessory prayer in particular. More on that in just a minute. Now, with all of that in mind, now we're ready for Luke eleven. So turn back. Hopefully your finger is still there, or a bookmark or something. Turn back to Luke chapter eleven and let's work through it. So we read the first part of the Lord's Prayer two weeks ago, verse two. When you pray, say, Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins.

For we also forgive everyone who sins against us. and lead us not into temptation. Notice that right in there, in particular with that key line, Your kingdom come, which in my opinion is kind of the key to unlock the Lord's Prayer, Notice that Jesus is tapping into the story of the Old Testament. He assumes that God's original intent was for free, creative, intelligent human beings to rule over the world. Your kingdom come. This is the kingdom language.

Two, he assumes that due to freedom the world has gone horribly wrong. Your kingdom come means what? What what what is Jesus what does he assume right there? Your kingdom come, that the kingdom of God isn't all the way here yet. In Jesus' mind's eye, heaven is the place where God's will is done all the time. Earth is the place where God's will is done some of the time.

Because on Earth there are other wills at play. There's my will and yours, and about seven plus other billion people on the planet. There's angelic will and demonic will, or spiritual will if you would. Nature in a sense has a will, and of course God at the center of all of it has a will. We'll talk more about this next week. But there are all sorts of wills at play.

And third, Jesus assumes that prayer is a relational collaboration whereby we join with God to see the kingdom of God come on earth. Your kingdom come. You pray for that. That's how you see the kingdom of God come. It's almost like Jesus grew up reading his Bible or something like that. And I just want you to see that for Jesus, prayer, man, first off, it actually makes a difference.

Like it's not just a okay, religious guilt trip, check the box, prayer, morning prayer, okay. No, for Jesus, it actually makes a difference. in the kingdom of God, in your day, in your age. I would argue that for Jesus, if I'm reading him right here and in other places, that for Jesus, the primary way we usher in the kingdom of God is through prayer. Very few of us actually believe that. Most of us think the primary way we usher in the kingdom of God is through hard work.

Whether that's preaching the gospel or justice in our city or healing or you fill in the blank, very few of us actually believe no, that stuff is it all matters. But the primary way that we join with God to usher in the kingdom of God in the longer version of that prayer in Portland as it is in heaven is through prayer. The reason that we're so frustrated all the time is because we don't actually believe this.

Our generation is all about protest, especially in Portland. We're like really good at that. And social media and we practically invented the Facebook rant. We're like the WikiLeaks generation. It's like all power is corrupt. Tear down the system. What is the system? I don't know, but tear it down. But so our generation. What if we were to channel all of that energy and angst?

and anger and frustrated longing for a better world into prayer instead of into Facebook or a mob, but rather into the Father's heart. And and I get it's a been a really hard year in our nation. If there ever was a time, regardless of which side you're on on the political thing, if there was ever a time when the world needed some decent government, it was right now. But what if we were to put our hope not in Washington D C, but in heaven? Not in a man or a woman, a politician or a party.

but in Jesus, in Jesus' name. alone and pray for the kingdom of God to come, for the will of God to be done in our nation and around the world as it is in heaven. Again the theologian Karl Barth said this to clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world. So those of you that just wanna like go protest something every weekend, welcome to Portland. We're so you'll fit in just great here. Just pr what if you were to just let all of that out.

Even tonight in prayer to God.

I just want you to see here how Jesus is tapping into this story of the Old Testament. Now we left off here a few weeks ago in verse four, but Jesus is not done. Keep reading. Verse five. Then Jesus said to them, So here's a a little story. Suppose you have a friend, hypothetical situation, and you go to him at midnight, right? You know, whatever. You're like single, you live in Southeast, you stay up late, whatever. You go to him at midnight and you say, Friend, lend me three loaves of bread.

If you're just you're like it whatever, okay? We don't do that anymore'cause it has gluten, but this was a long time ago. A friend of mine on a journey has come to me and I have no food to offer him. So this is the ancient Near East. Hospitality is like, you know, right at the top of the list. So huge problem. And suppose the one inside answers

Don't bother me. The door is already locked and my children and I are in bed. I can't get up and give you anything. She just I just love this story. We don't think of Jesus as funny. This is a funny story, all right? It's lost in translation and a few millennia, but it's funny. I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship.

Yet because of your shameless audacity, he will surely get up and give you as much as you need. Now, I love it. This is a genre of teaching that was popular in the first century. It's called how much more we'll read that phrase in just a minute.

Basically, in it, a rabbi usually would compare and contrast one bad thing with another good thing in order to make a point. Jesus is saying, Listen, if you can get a grumpy, lazy, narcissistic neighbor If you can get somebody like that to answer your prayer, so to speak, how many of you have like like a neighbor that's just less than awesome? Yeah, I've everywhere I've lived I've always had somebody that's just been like, Where did you come from and when will you move? Please

Please let it be soon, you know? I've always had one. For the most part great and there's always one. So just imagine that person in your mind's eye, then repent and then come back, okay? If you can get somebody like that to answer your prayer just because you knock and you annoy and you text and you email and you don't let up, how much more can you get a loving, generous,

selfless father with good intentions toward you to answer your prayers. All you have to do is ask. So I say to you, nine, ask and it will be given to you. I love this. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be open to you. For everyone who asks receives, the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks the door will be open. Jesus is saying three very simple things, like you don't need a PhD.

Or you don't need to go to seminary like this is really straight down the middle. One he's saying ask. Ask. Ask the Father. Two he's saying ask with shameless and Audacity. I love that language. If you have um it can also be translated from the Greek as impudence if you have the ESV, all of those of you who are impudent, and persistent in another translation. He's saying just just like straight up go for ask, ask think of a child to a father. My kids ask me for all sorts of outlandish things.

Right? Like just ridiculous. Can we have a Ferrari? No, we can't have a Ferrari. Like what do you think no, like whatever. But please, Dad, what if somebody gave you a hundred thousand dollars? Then could we have a Ferrari? And like this is a real question a few weeks ago. I'm like

No, like your generation is like you don't like you're gonna five years from now we'll all be dri like not driving cars anymore and they'll all be electric and we won't even have to own a car, it'll be awesome and you want a Ferrari, what is wrong with you? So But there's just a shameless audacity to a child with his or her father. And three, Jesus is saying, don't stop asking with shameless audacity. Don't stop.

In Greek, it's it's a bit confusing because we don't have an equivalent in the English language, in English grammar, but there's a tense here that can be translated, keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking, just don't go away from the door. Just knock. Knock No not home. Knock no I'm not here. Knock. I'm in bed knock no like just don't

Stop, don't let up. And notice that for Jesus, this is really important. All of this is rooted again in his view of God as a father. Eleven, which of you fathers, and if you're dad here tonight, this will make a ton of sense to you. If your son asks for a fish which my sons have never done that, so I'm good, um, but will give him a snake instead.

This is funny. Like this is this is kinda cool. Or if he asks for an egg, we'll maybe this was a thing back in the day, like daddy, can I please have an egg? We'll we'll give him a scorpion. If you then and I love how straight up Jesus is, though you are evil Thanks Jesus. Um Here it is again, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who asked him? Notice that Jesus is just driving his point home.

Uh one of the first things you learn about the New Testament is that uh this is before word processor, before paper, before Gutenberg, and so everything's about economy. So when you have a teaching or a story that takes up a lot of space, that's like a whoa, slow down and pay attention. So here this is not a a short teaching. This is a very long teaching on prayer.

And notice that Jesus is kind of saying the same thing over and over and over again. Ask. Ask with shameless shameless audacity. Don't stop asking with shameless audacity. Why is he just harping on this? Could it be that one because we don't ask? Seriously, how many of us have problems and issues in our life that we've never prayed about? How many of us are angry or upset or mad at God, at the church, at the city, at life, about things that we've never actually prayed for?

I'm shocked how often when we pray for healing over people, and this is not a slam on anybody, it's just I notice it. It's really interesting. I'll ask somebody who comes forward for prayer, have you asked God to heal you? I'm shocked. Do you know people almost never say yes? Almost it's really rare for somebody to say yes. I've been praying for God to heal me for two years. But that does happen, it's really rare. Most of the time, no, I've never asked God to heal me.

We'll talk next week about Unanswered prayer. Right, because if you have any cynic in you, which is pretty much all of us in Portland, right now there's all sorts of yah buts, yah buts, yah butts in the back of your mind, right? So we'll talk I'm doing an entire teaching next week on unanswered prayer. We'll get there. Unanswered prayer is a huge problem, but you know what an even greater problem is? Unasked prayer.

The reality is that most of us don't even ask in the first place. I don't know why. Is it is it fatalism? We just think what's going to happen is going to happen with or without my prayers. We don't actually believe in prayer or really get the why or is it that? Is it self sufficiency? We just think, you know, I have a good job. I have health insurance. I have a Twitter account. I have a degree from whatever. I don't need to pray about it.

I uh is it that is it something else? I'm not sure. But could it be that Jesus is harping on this because one we don't even ask in the first place? And two, because when we asked, we asked with timidity rather than with shameless audacity. I think that often I need to be careful how I word this, but often in our desire to please God. And to come under the authority of the Father in a good, healthy way, and to pray with Jesus, Your will be done.

That's all good. I pray that on a regular basis. But I cannot but wonder if sometimes we forget that God is our Father. And in the same way that you want to please your father and give in to his desires, guess what? He wants to please you. He wants to give in to your desires.

Now he loves you enough to override your desires when they're really lousy, right? And if you don't believe me, like the worst thing God could ever do for you is answer all of your prayers. And if you don't believe me, watch Aladdin, great film from the nineties before Disney went down, all right? It's fantastic like every story, every fable, every myth about the genie in the bottle, like that it never ends well. It ne well, El Adam kinda does, but it gets bad before it gets good, you know?

It's so true. But still, we forget that absolutely your will be done. But we forget that God is your Father. And he cares about what is going on in your life. And third, could it be it's because we're so quick to give up. It's tiring to pray in general. Am I right? Prayer, this type of prayer, the asking God prayer, man, at times it just feels like hard work. It kind of is. And it's tiring, especially when you pray day after week after month after year, and nothing or a little bit.

But not what you are asking for. It's so easy to just pray once, twice, three times, a month, two, three months, and then just give up. Just throw in the towel. Man, I just can't help but wonder. We'll talk especially next week. There are all sorts of reasons that we don't get the answer to our prayer. God saying no is just one of many reasons. Remember, there are other wills at play. We'll talk about that next week.

God's delays are not necessarily God's denials. Takes time to figure out is this God saying no? Or is God actually saying, No, keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking, don't give up, shameless audacity, come before the Father, don't give in. Jesus here is driving the point home, like over making his point. Ask. Ask with shameless audacity and don't stop asking with shameless.

Now this is where we get this idea of intercessory prayer. This is real kinda odd church language. That word intercession is actually this was a shock to me, only used twice in the New Testament. Here's the main example from Paul's letter to Timothy, a few decades after Jesus. He writes this I urge then first of all that petitions prayers, intercession, there it is, and thanksgiving be made for all peoples. The fitting uh fitting text for our nation right now.

for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives. In all godliness, And holiness. This is good and pleases God our Savior. In Greek, that word there that we translate intercession is entuxis. And it more it more literally means to petition a king. That's what intercession is. It's to come before a king, somebody with power and authority, and petition, or that can also be translated to make a request. or to ask for something.

And the word is only used right here and in one other place, but the idea is all over the New Testament. We are to petition the king for all sorts of things in line with his kingdom. I love this from the theologian Walter Wink. And just let this sink over you. Intercession is spiritual defiance of what is in the name of what God has promised. Intercessors visualize an alternative future to the one apparently faded by the momentum of current forces.

Prayer infuses the air of a time yet to be into the suffocating atmosphere of the present. History belongs to the intercessors who believe the future into being. Even a small number of people firmly committed to the new inevitability on which they have fixed their imaginations can decide. The effect, the shape the future takes, these shapers of the future are the intercessors. How good is that?

How many of you want to be the intercessors? Want to be a small number of people firmly committed to the new inevitability inevitabil whatever it is, on which they have fixed their imaginations.

So our practice for the coming week is just that. It's intercessory prayer. It's to petition the King, it's to imagine with the Holy Spirit an alternate reality and an alternate future, and to believe that future into being. All of our practice is available at practicing the way dot org slash prayer.

We have two exercises for the week ahead. One um is active and the other is more passive, but in a good way. The first is prayer cards. Do you have this from the front? Did you get one on your way in? Okay, this is a tool that myself and a few others started using recently, and it is over-the-top helpful. Uh just give it a try. You might love it, you might hate it. Just give it a try for a week or two. It's pretty self-explanatory. It says prayer card at the top.

And then there are a few bul and I just have one I have one for each of my kids, one for my wife. One for my community, one for our staff, one for you guys, one for my friends, and one for myself. Something like that. I think I have about ten or something all together. And then just write down a few bullet point prayers. Remember to be specific. Generic prayers get What kinda answers? Generic answer, specific prayers get what?

Specific answers. So be specific. Date it. If you don't know exactly what to pray for, and that happens to me on a regular basis. I'm like just a few days ago I was starting to pray for something. I like I had no idea how to pray for it. Then just give it a minute. Let the Holy Spirit spark a scripture in your mind's eye, and if nothing else, pray that scripture. Get your vocabulary for prayer.

out of the Bible. And then date it and keep this with you in your back pocket. I just have a I have a pile right here in the front of my Bible that I take with me, open up every single morning. And I just linger over, I don't pray through every single card every day. I just pull out two or three, linger for a minute or two over it, pray one or two or three of the bullet points. And that way, like these are actually in my regular prayer life.

It's a great way by the way when somebody um says, Will you pray for me? If you're anything like me, I always like do you ever say no? I don't. But um what I say all the time is sure. What I mean by sure is I won't actually pray for you because I don't have like intercession in my daily routine or any kind of organized way to pray, but I have really good intentions right now and I my heart is good. Like I really mean well toward you.

But the reality is I have an iPhone and a job and three children and I live in the city. And I'm kinda distracted all the time. So if you come to mine, it'll probably be when I'm like on my bicycle on the way to work. I might remember to pray for you really fast, but th I probably won't, so sorry.

That's what it actually means when I say I'll pray for you, okay? So some of you are like, You're horrible, you're just as bad. There's like four of you that mean what you say, all right? So please pray for me, all right? But it's it's really this is a great way. Just keep a few extra blank ones and just write in a name, write in a few things and actually pray over that person or that situation.

that is more passive, but I think in a really healthy way, we call praying the room. And this is a a form of imaginative prayer. We'll talk more about that next month. Really helpful for me in my prayer life. Where you just create a little space Close your eyes if you want, and you imagine in your mind's eye a room. Uh for me it's my home office and our last house, which was kind of our uh it was my happy place. And I imagine that home office, and I'm in my chair.

And you just let the Holy Spirit bring somebody or a situation, but usually it's a person, into the room. And that's the person you pray for. And then before you pray, you just let the Holy Spirit spark something to pray for. And you d maybe just ask, Holy Spirit, what do I pray over this person? And then a scripture comes to mind or a specific

request or a prayer or whatever and you just pray that and pray over one person if you have time, pray over a handful, whatever you want, and just let the Holy Spirit I just started doing this recently and it is just so life giving for me. So

I would just say I have found both of these exercises really helpful. Intercession, some aspects of my prayer life I think are are strong or getting stronger. Other aspects, in particular intercessory prayer or asking God, is like really weak sauce in my life.

And both of these exercises are really helpful for me in my prayer. And I would just say give them a try. And if you love'em, great. And if not, try something else. Remember that any kind of technique with prayer who's it for? Is it for you or for God? Which one?

It's it's for you. It's not for God. God's not like, oh, this is the way you pray. Like this is the technique. Don't that was the wrong kind of room. That was the that was not you were outdoor, you can't have an outdoor room. You live in Portland, like it has no, like this is for you. To focus in a busy digital age with a phone, stress, traffic, living in the city, how to actually focus in on prayer.

So that's our practice for the week ahead with each of our communities. That said, um let's end just by really fast talking about how we end a prayer. How how do most people end a prayer? There's a very American church line. What is it? Yeah, but even before the Amen, what do people say? In Jesus' name, Amen. Okay, where does that even come from? Well, it comes from the teachings of Jesus, and we'll read one of them next week. Where Jesus would say, Hey, pray in my name.

That is that line isn't it was it was never supposed to be a line that you tack on to the end of your prayer like a magic incantation, like the open sesame of the kingdom of God. It's like, pray, pray, pray in Jesus' name, Amen. Like No no no that's it's not a line you pray at all. It's a heart posture of faith in prayer. Um Larry Hurtado, like top shelf academic scholar, he writes this.

To pray in Jesus' name means that we enter into Jesus status in God's favor and invoke Jesus standing with God. So to pray in Jesus' name is to come before God, come before into the throne room of the universe, so to speak, with the king of the universe, but come not as a beggar off the street, but as a Son as a daughter adopted into the family. And if people question you at the door, you just say, I'm with that guy. Who? Jesus. Okay, you're in. Come on in. He's your past.

In to the Father, to pray in Jesus' name is to come before God as a royal son, as a royal daughter, to take up your rightful place with shameless audacity and to join God in running the world. through prayer. That's what it is. So if you're going to pray that line in Jesus' name. Pray it at the beginning of your prayer, not at the end. And end your prayer however you want. A few days ago

We were around the dinner table and um once in a while I asked, Hey, does any any of you kids want to pray? And I don't ask you very often because normally they say no, and then I just feel like a failure as a dad. So But I was in a good mood and I said, Do any of you kids want to pray? And Moses is the least likely to say, you know, me.

And and so mo if you know Moses, he's my eight-year-old and he's just really introverted and kinda crazy, but in a good way, but kinda crazy. And and so you never know exactly what's going on in there. And And I think like sometimes I think, man, there's just not a lot of spirituality yet. I mean he's eight, but there's just not a lot there yet. But then once in a while he'll pray and his prayers are just

thoughtful and intelligent and genuine and authentic and like not churchy at all. It's really cool. I'm like, oh, oh, oh, oh it's a great feeling. That's a dad. About every three months I'm like, uh, right? So he goes, I wanna pray. Fantastic. And then he just prays this beautiful prayer. I mean, eyes open, just kinda he's kinda crazy, but he's awesome. And he and he gets to the end and Tammy and I are just smiling at each other and he gets to the end and he goes Love Moses.

And then he goes, aka Amen. So if you don't really know how to pra end your prayer, try that one on. Love your name, aka Amen. Let's stand together.

I love that concept of shameless audacity in prayer. Jesus is telling us to ask boldly, persistently, without apology, like a child who knows their father loves them and wants to give good gifts. So to end, let's take some time to simply ask God for something. Start by taking a few deep breaths with me. Focus your attention on God. What do you want to ask him for? Take a moment and see what comes to mind. And when you're ready, just ask the Father for it in your own words.

Ask with shameless audacity. Remember his posture towards us is that of love, delight, and favor. I'll give you thirty seconds here to share your request with a father. And then close with Amen. AMEN

Thanks for listening. This podcast is from Practice in the Way. We develop resources to help churches and small groups apprentice in the way of Jesus. Links to Little Thoughts for our show music. We're a crowdfunded non-profit so everything we make is completely free because it's already been paid for by the circle, our community of monthly givers. today goes to Drew from Georgetown, Texas. New York, New York Nancy from the Thank you all for the first time.

To join these friends in the circle of the About our resources, visit practiceintheway.org. Until next time, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. The love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.