Preached in Markham Baptist Church, July 4, 2004.

A SEASON OF PRAYER:
Part 1 - WHY PRAY FOR OTHERS?

Genesis 18:16-33

I want us to think this morning of the question, “Why pray for others?” It is a question I ask often.  What effect do our prayers have on this world anyway?  Have you ever thought what life, what our world would be like if you and I never prayed?   

Every Christmas at least one television station will air that classic movie, “It’s A Wonderful Life.”  I like it - Jimmy Stewart plays George Bailey an ordinary hardworking, honest, moral man who has a dream of travelling around the world and escaping the only town he has known, Bedford Falls.  He puts that dream on hold when a crisis arises in his town and he steps in to help.  He and his wife stay so long that they never do leave.  And George lives his whole life in Bedford Falls doing seemingly ordinary things. He saves his brother from drowning – who in turn goes over seas and saves a whole a group of men from death in war. He keeps the local pharmacist from making a tragic mistake in giving out of medication.  He runs a building and loan business and helps many buy their first home by offering ridiculously low rates.   He gives money to one woman with questionable morals to leave town and start life all over again.  He does one good turn after another.

Have you ever thought what the world would be like if you and I never prayed?  What effect have our prayers had on people in our families in our church, in our world?  Would Margo Clare enjoy the level of health she enjoys today if we had never prayed for her healing?  Would our missionaries be doing what they are doing if we did not pray for them?  Personally, Mary Frances attributes Carl’s health to the fact that I went in and anointed Carl with oil and prayed over him.  Would Carl be worshipping with us today if I had not done that ordinary pastoral act?  What effect do our prayers have?

I must admit there are times when I come to the end of my rope prayer wise.  And like George Bailey I ask the question, What’s the use?  What’s the use of praying?  I mean God is sovereign.  He is in charge.  Won’t His will be done regardless of my prayers?  I’m just one person, what makes me think that I can change anything?  What makes me think that I can have an effect in the life of anyone for salvation or healing or divine intervention in our town or my family?  Why pray? And there is the fact that I don’t often see the results.  There are two girls I have been praying for since high school, that they would come to faith, and since that time I have prayed for Carol Anne Hayes and Beth Adams, that they would come to know Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord.  I haven’t seen these two girls since high school graduation.  Will I ever know the effect of my prayers on those two lives? 

And I sometimes think, wouldn’t it be wonderful to see the effects of our prayers?  To be able to see what has happened because we have prayed, OR to be able to see what has happened because we have not prayed.

So the question, “Why pray for others?”  And our text today suggests some possible answers to this question.  It doesn’t give us all the answers, there is a great deal of mystery surrounding intercessory prayer, but there are some answers suggested here. 

Why pray for others?  First, we pray for others because God is sovereign.  Now you say, “Wait a minute, Tom - you just said that one of the problems you have with prayer is that God is sovereign."  That’s true.  God will do what he will do.  Psalm 115:3 “He does whatever pleases him.” 

Daniel 4:35, “He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth.  No one can hold back His hand or say to Him: “What have you done?” 

Scripture clearly teaches that God is sovereign.  Our text teaches the sovereignty of God in verses 17-19.  There we see that it is God who has chosen Abraham, it is God is who will make him a great and powerful nation.  It is God who will bring about for Abraham "what he has promised him.”  God is sovereign.

But while Scripture clearly teaches God’s sovereignty there is another stream in Scripture that teaches us that because God is sovereign, because He is all powerful, because He is able His people can come to Him in prayer and know that they will be heard.

There was a king by the name of Hezekiah who was told through a messenger of God by the name of Isaiah that he was about to die.  "Get your house in order Hezekiah, pay your bills, settle your estate because you are about to die."  But Hezekiah falls down on his knees and prays to God. And before Isaiah is even out of the house God tells Isaiah to go back to Hezekiah and tell him that I have heard his prayer and seen his tears and I will give him 15 more years.  (2 Kings 20 and Isaiah 38).  It was because God is sovereign that Hezekiah fell on his knees in prayer.

And so with Abraham.  I believe it is because Abraham knew that God was sovereign that he was able to pray so boldly for Sodom and Gomorrah. 

Far from keeping us from praying the truth of God’s sovereignty should spur us on to prayer.  We have a God who is able to answer prayer.  He is not some puny God, restricted by time or circumstances.  But He is the all-powerful God who is able keep the sun in place after Joshua prayed (Joshua 10:12-14). He is able to be send the much needed rains in a cloud as small as a human hand after Elijah prays (I Kings 18:41-46).

We need to take this fact in because often our prayers are so puny, you would never guess that we are praying to the Lord of the universe who sits enthroned above the circle of the earth. … who reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. (Isaiah 40:22,23)

Can I offer a pastoral correction – when you pray think about what you are saying and stop saying the word “just”.  It is a word that has slipped into our evangelical vocabulary.  “Lord we just want you to heal so and so,” “Lord we just want you to help our church.”  We use the word unthinkingly. My friends that word just means “barely, no more than”.  That word “just” is a limiting word, which means, “this is all we are asking.”  What kind of prayer is that to offer the one who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name?” 

Get rid of it, and begin asking for so much more!  Why?  Because He is sovereign and it’s His to give.  He is able.  Do you not know, have you not heard,  The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth!”  And you come asking Him, “JUST”!??? 

Just this little thing.  Look at the prayer of Abraham – not just 50, but 45.  Not just 45 but 30 – all the way down to 10.  It is because God is sovereign that we can be so bold in our prayers.  It is because He is sovereign that we pray for others.

Well you are a smart people and you have discovered a contradiction God is sovereign yet He responds to human prayer.  So this leads us to the second reason why we pray for others.

We pray for others because it demonstrates cooperation with God.  It really is a cool mystery - God in His sovereignty could feed the hungry by supplying manna from heaven. He could give comfort to those who mourn with a vision of heaven.  He can do all things nothing is impossible for Him.  But instead of working like an all-powerful magician in His grace He has called us into partnership with Him.  He has revealed His will to us and He has called us to be His partners in bringing that will about.  So He says, "I will feed the hungry, but I will do it through you.  I will house the homeless but I will do it through you.  We’ll be partners.  I will transform lives but I will do it through you.  Not only through your actions but through your prayers.  I will respond to your prayers as you are in cooperation with me." 

My friends, we have got to get away from this liberal idea that prayer only has an effect on us.  When I pray for others I let go of grudges, the Spirit helps me overcome bitterness, and gives me wisdom and that’s all that happens.  Indeed we are changed in prayer.  But that’s not all that happens when we pray for others. 

When we pray for others the sick are healed, the discouraged are given new strength and fortitude, those in darkness are brought into light.  Why?  Because we are cooperating with God we are depending on Him to bring about His will, His purposes and His plans.  You know it from business, you know it from church work, how much quicker the work goes when people are cooperating with one another, working with one another.  So with the will of God, how much more God is able to accomplish when His people are willing to go His way, work with Him, and pray for this will to be done in all areas of life. 

So in our text, we see God graciously reveals to Abraham what He will do.   He calls Abraham into partnership.   He is going down to Sodom and Gomorrah “to see if the what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me.” (Genesis 18:21)

He tells Abraham what He is going to do.  And then Abraham stands before God and prays on behalf of the people of Sodom.  Abraham isn’t praying for his own betterment.  He is praying for the people of Sodom – he is cooperating with God, saying, “God you are just, and because of that I know that you would not destroy that town if you found 50 right-living people".

And God says, "You are right, Abraham. I will spare the town if I find 50 righteous people."  And Abraham knowing how wonderfully just God is, continues to plead for the people of Sodom all the way down to 10.  As he prays for the people of Sodom, he is cooperating with God to bring about God’s will.

The truth of prayer for others is that God is pleased to bring about His purposes in response to the prayers of His people.

This leads us to a word about how to pray for others.  I find Richard Foster’s suggestion to be helpful.  He suggests that when in prayer we simply wait quietly for individuals or situations to spontaneously rise to our awareness.  Then offer these people to God, listening for any special focus come to guide the content of your prayer.   After listening then pray this back to God with confidence that he hears your prayer.  Then remain still again inviting the Spirit to pray through you with “sighs too deep for words.” ¹

That may seem really way out to you – but I share this with you because it demonstrates the idea of intercessory prayer is cooperation with God.  The  idea is simply this, when you pray for others, let God guide you, let your prayer be offered in cooperation with Him.

This leads us to the last reason why we pray for others.

We pray for others because God is sovereign, because it demonstrates cooperation with God and then this, we pray for others because it demonstrates God’s character.

I don’t know if Abraham knew it or not, but he was demonstrating God’s character of love for the people of Sodom.  Our God is a God who intercedes, He seeks to work on our behalf.  He is the one who came in the person of Jesus Christ for us. 

In fact this is what we celebrate at this communion table.  We celebrate the fact that Jesus body was broken for us, that His blood was shed for us, that He interceded for us.

But not only this, but Scripture makes it clear that Jesus Christ rose from the dead and is now praying for us.  Romans 8:34: “Who is he that condemns?  Christ Jesus who died – more than that, who was raised to life – is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” 

When we are praying for others, we are demonstrating God’s character in our lives, we are demonstrating love for others, we are responding to the promptings of the Holy Spirit living in us and bringing others and their needs to the feet of our sovereign God. 

You know, when I get to heaven I hope that one of the things that I will be able to do is the “George Bailey” thing is to find out all the chain of events that happened because I prayed.     I don’t know if I will have the courage to ask God to show me all the things that happened because I didn’t pray. 

But won’t that be wonderful to discover all the things that happened in people’s lives because of your prayers?  Won’t it be wonderful to see the lives that have been changed, the relationships that have been healed, the kingdom furthered because you were down on your knees interceding? 

Copyright MBC and Tom Cullen - July 2004