Brave Enough to Intercede

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Our sermon today is coming from Luke chapter 5, verses 18 through 20. Luke chapter 5, verses 18 through 20. And this is a familiar passage of scripture, but I'm reading it today from the message Bible. And this is what it says. Some men arrived carrying a paraplegic on a stretcher. They were looking for a way to get into the house and set him before Jesus. When they couldn't find a way in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof, removed some tiles, and let him down in the middle of everyone, right in front of Jesus. Impressed by their bold faith, he said, Friend, I forgive your sins. So today, our noonday sermon topic is brave enough to intercede. Brave enough to intercede. Now, when you look at this story in Luke chapter five, where the four friends carried their sick friend, their paraplegic, the guy that was paralyzed, when they were bent on placing him before Jesus so that he could be healed. We think how impressive that was. But we contrast that with the story in Genesis, in the book of Genesis, when Jesus asked Cain, who had murdered his brother Abel, when God asked him, he says, Where is your brother? And Cain, knowing full well what he had done, how he had killed his brother, he pridefully and irreverently answered God and said, basically, I don't know. Am I my brother's keeper? Suggesting that he wasn't responsible for anyone else but himself. Now that's a stark contrast from the four friends who carried their paraplegic friend to Jesus. We see men in Luke chapter five who were determined to get their friend in the presence of our Lord and Savior for healing, and nothing would stop them that day. They couldn't enter through the door. Well, that's not gonna stop us. We'll go to the roof, and that is the kind of intercessors that God is looking for, especially today, especially now in our world that's so such a meoriented world where we're only thinking of ourselves, me, my and mine, and God is saying, no, we need to be concerned about one another, committed enough, brave enough to do whatever it takes to get others before Jesus. Those four friends, as Pastor John Hannah said, they were innovative and audacious in their faith, saying to each other, our friend will be healed today, this day. They went to the meeting and realized that the crowd size wouldn't let them come through the door, but they didn't give up. To not get in, that was not an option. They just moved forward in faith. I don't know, maybe they thought about it, they talked it out, they developed a plan, maybe even said a quick prayer. But whatever they did, they moved forward in faith, and they were wonderful intercessors for their friend, and their faith paid off. Jesus healed him because of their faith and tenacity. So our word today is about us. What are we willing to do to get others before Jesus for a change in their life, for a change in their condition? Not just thinking about ourselves, but thinking about our family members and others that need Jesus. What about you? Are you your brother's keeper? Are you brave enough to keep going and to keep praying and to keep advocating for others? What are the characteristics of an effective interceder? Well, let's take a look at them. First, you yourself must know Jesus Christ. Before you can bring anybody else to Christ, you have to know him for yourself. You have to have that right relationship with God. You have to have that witness of his goodness. Remember the hard times that God brought you through. When you thought it was just for you, no, it wasn't for you. It was for you to be a witness to someone else, to be able to testify of God's goodness, of his grace and his mercy. The truth is, when you haven't been through anything, you can't sympathize with others in their dilemmas. But when you've been through some things yourself, some hard times, some trials, some lows, some problems, sickness, financial difficulties, problems on the job, with family members. Then when you know for yourself that God will bring you out, then you can feel and bear the weight of other people's dilemmas and have compassion and empathy on them. So that's the first thing. You have to know and have a relationship with Jesus Christ for yourself. And then the second thing, in order to be a good interceder, advocating for other people, is that you have to have an unrelenting persistence about you. You can't just pray one time and expect things to change in the lives of others. It didn't happen overnight in your life. I'm sure you can testify to that, and it won't happen in theirs either. You've got to stay on your knees, be persistent, be relentless in your pursuit to get them before Jesus. Whether it's your spouse or your children or other family members, whether it's your church family, neighbors, or people you don't even know. Be persistent in your prayers for them. You've heard it. The best way to get back on your feet is to get down on your knees. And that's what we have to do for others in our world today. Yeah, we've got to pray for other people. We've got to bring heaven on earth. We've got to give God permission and ask him to be a part of our lives. Remember the Canaanite mother in Matthew chapter 15? She went to Jesus on behalf of her daughter, who she said was demon-possessed. She cried out to Jesus, even though she was of a different faith. She was as what they would call a heathen. But she cried out to Jesus, and he basically ignored her. And I know that this story takes place for it to be a teaching to us. So when it says that Jesus ignored her, it was for a purpose. But she kept on, even though Jesus' disciples and others told him to send her away. And finally, he addressed the woman. And he told her that he was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. In other words, I wasn't sent for people like you. But we know that Jesus was teaching all of us. Because even then she begged him to help her. He told her it wasn't good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. But her answer stopped Jesus in his tracks. She said to him, My Lord, even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master's table. She didn't get mad at Jesus. She didn't get offended that he had likened her to a dog. She didn't get upset and leave. She simply gave him a reply of faith. She said, I'll take the crumbs that you give me. And that reply showed Jesus her great faith. And the word says he healed her daughter that very hour, all because she was persistent in her petition to get a healing for her daughter. And that's how we need to be. We can't give up. We can't take no for an answer. We can't stop and become offended when we don't get an answer right away or we get bitter or resentful. No, we've got to have unrelenting persistence as intercessors. And then the third thing is we need to be laser focused, not looking around and being distracted. Remember the four friends in the text that we read at the beginning that cut a hole in the roof and lowered their friend down? They didn't listen to the rubber neckers outside who saw them on the roof and probably had a lot to say about it. They didn't even hear or listen to the likely naysayers that told them they were crazy. Hey, you guys, get down from there. What do you think you're doing? Or the fearful that told them, no, that's that's not gonna work. Come down. They didn't listen to any of that. They were focused on the job at hand, not the threats, not the taunts from others, the doubting of others that they could be successful, or the jeering and the laughter. No, they got the last laugh because they were successful. Focus is one of the most essential marks of an intercessor. We have to stay focused, we have to keep our eyes on the prize. So we have to know Jesus for ourselves, we have to have unrelenting persistence, we have to have a laser focus to be a good interceder on behalf of others, intercessor, and then we must be praying God's will in the situation where we're an intercessor. A lot of times people ask us to pray for them, to be healed, or to get a certain job, or for a certain outcome, but we have to know as an intercessor that we must be open to the will of God first. Now I know in James chapter five, it says that Elijah prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain for three and a half years. And then he prayed again that the heavens gave rain. And so it did. The heavens opened up and the rain came. So it sounds like he was very specific. He asked for certain things and he got certain things. But if we go back to the story of all that was going on when Elijah was praying, we'll see that Elijah's prayers were directly tied to what God was doing in the lives of his people and with the leadership of evil Ahab and evil Jezebel at that time. But here's the thing: when we pray, we don't know the big picture. And even what we see clearly on the outside of a person or in their situation is only part of what's really going on. So it is always better to pray for God's perfect will than it is for his permissive will. God will sometimes grant us the things that are not his best for us, just because we ask, and because we're persistent in asking. A king was not the best for Israel, but God permitted it, because that's what the people wanted, that's what they prayed for, that's what they asked for, and then they were left to deal with the consequences that were not good. But when we pray for God's perfect will, when we step aside and we say, Lord, you know best, then God takes care of all that goes into it, and he then gives us the best possible outcome, and he weaves it all into good for us. So sometimes we pray hard for people to be healed and they get healed, but then something else worse comes out of it for them. Kind of like people who win the lottery, and then some short time later, their lives are worse off than they were before. They're in more debt, they don't get along with loved ones. All kinds of problems have come up, new things that make it worse for them than it was before. So, as intercessors, as those standing in a gap for someone else, we must pray for the giving and acceptance of God's perfect will, that we could accept it, that they will accept it to be done in their lives and in the lives of others. Because sometimes we want people to live, and when they die, we're resentful of it, not realizing that God knows best. We have to be accepting because we don't see the big picture, we don't know the whole story. So let's be brave enough to pray for God's perfect will in the lives of others, even if it's not what they want or if it's not what we want. We must trust in the Lord. And then the final thing, number five, is we must be brave enough to walk patiently, even through the valley of the shadow of death as an intercessor. Remember Job? Things got so bad for Job, he had lost everything. He was full of lesions and gross-looking boils, he was in constant pain, he was all broke down. It was bad. So bad that his wife couldn't bear it. She couldn't look upon him, and she wasn't brave enough to be his intercessor to pray for him in belief that God would see him through. So, what did she do? She told him, Job, you ought to just curse God and die. How was that gonna help him? That wasn't helpful. It wasn't helpful either. That his friends insisted that he confess. Confess, Job, we know you did something. Confess your sin to God so you can be healed. But Job knew that he had done nothing. They didn't know the big picture, they didn't know that that God had been talking to Satan. Job didn't know it either. We don't always know all that goes on, and so they were brave enough to intercede for Job and to pray him through. So sometimes those in our lives seem to be suffering, and we think we know best how to relieve that suffering. So sometimes we give up on them rather than pray for God's perfect will to intervene, to come through in whatever way that is. Some things we only learn through pain. Remember when our parents got ready to spank us? They often said it was for our own good. We didn't see it at the time. How could pain be good for us? But there are some things in us that only pain can change. So let's be brave enough to know and to honor this in whatever way God decides to take it from us for our friends, whether he allows the suffering and then he brings them out, whether he takes them on home, whether he whatever he does, let us be persuaded. Persistent in praying through till God has a change in the lives of us and our family members and our friends and those we're interceding on behalf of. So the thing is this yes, we are our brother's keeper. We need to be praying for one another daily. We need to pray consistently and persistently. We need to pray focused prayers on behalf of others, not for what we want for them or even for what they want for themselves, but rather for God to open doors and opportunities for his best, perfect will for their lives. Is it easy to do this? No, it isn't easy. It wasn't easy for Jesus. We know the steps he took to get to the point where he finally said, Not my will, but thine be done. The prayers he had to pray, even getting upset with his disciples and fussing at them. Can't you even pray with me for one hour? It's a process until God's supernatural peace came upon him. And the same for us. So when we pray, we must expect a breakthrough. We pray with expectation. And we pray not as coward soldiers, but being brave, walking by faith, and not by sight. God bless you. Let us pray. Lord, we thank you for this reminder that we're not just blessed for ourselves, but we're blessed to be a blessing. And so as we know and have walked through a lot of trials and tribulations ourselves, we thank you that we now have that test behind us as a testimony to someone else, that we can stand in the gap for them, that we can advocate for them, and that we can know that it's a it's a marathon, it's not a sprint. We can't just pray one time and hope that change is gonna come, but we're in it for the long haul, praying for your perfect will in the lives of others. We thank you for this opportunity. We bless your name, Lord, because we know that you're able to do all things, even things that we can't even imagine. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen, everybody. Thank you for joining us this Friday for our noonday service. We hope it's been a blessing to you and encouragement, and we hope that you will share the good news of Jesus Christ with all that you know. Now, unto him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. To the only wise God, our Savior, be glory, majesty, dominion, and power both now and forevermore. Let us all say, Amen. Now go and be great for God and go to church on Sunday. God bless you.