You kindly turn with me to the gospel
recorded by Saint Matthew, chapter 18, and I
would like to read as the basis of
our meditation this evening, verses 18 to 20.
Matthew chapter 18, verses 18 to 20.
And I'm going to read this from the
New International Version.
Now, our Lord is the speaker here, as
will be very evident, and he says, I
tell you the truth, whatever you bind on
earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever
you loose on earth will be loosed in
heaven.
Again, I tell you that if two of
you on earth agree about anything you ask
for, it will be done for you by
my Father in heaven.
For where two or three come together in
my name, there am I with them.
Authority in praying.
Earlier in Matthew's gospel, in chapter six to
be precise, our Lord Jesus stressed the importance
of private prayer, and I think we need
to bear that in mind when we come
to a passage such as this.
The entire emphasis in Matthew chapter six is
upon the individual believer going aside, locking the
door, or closing the door.
I believe that by intention our Lord meant
us to lock it, or at least to
make sure that no one intrudes.
Close the door so that in the privacy
of your own sanctuary in the home, you
can open your heart, you can bring your
praise, you can offer your petitions, you can
make your intercessions, no one, no human being
hears you but only God.
And he who hears you in the secret
will in due course grant you your request.
That's the message in chapter six.
And it is, let me repeat as far
as I can understand, it is absolutely basic.
Private prayer, individual prayer, is something that we
must learn for ourselves and in a sense
master before we can know much about the
validity of public prayer and intercession.
But now in our present text, Jesus focuses
attention upon the importance of God's people praying
together, praying publicly, meeting together, in order that
we should together make our intercessions and offer
our praise.
And as a matter of fact, he almost
takes our breath away by the apparent extravagance
with which he tells us of the possibilities
that await us.
One is tempted here to try to amend
the text in order to lessen the gulf
that exists between the experience of the church
and the promise held out by our Lord.
And I know personally of many people who
have tried to do that.
Of course they believe that the Bible is
the word of God, but they cannot conceivably
imagine that our Lord really meant what he
had here in mind when he said, again
I tell you that if two of you
on earth agree about anything you ask for
it will be done for you by my
Father in heaven.
Authority in prayer.
Now whether or not we find it difficult
to comprehend and take in this message at
the beginning as we read the text, we
are in honor bound to look into the
face of the word of God and see
what it has to say to us.
And however it may cut across our own
experience, however it may humiliate us by showing
us that we know next to nothing about
real prayer, I think we must be honest
and face the testimony of scripture concerning this
most important and basic exercise of the Christian
life, namely prayer to almighty God our Father.
Now the first thing I want to dwell
on for a moment then is the immense
possibility that our Lord places before a gathering
of believers.
This word that really takes our breath away.
Let's look at it.
In the words of the text, Jesus places
before the church, before the congregation or assembly
of believers, a most far-reaching possibility.
And he speaks of it in two ways.
With the one breath he speaks of it
as the possibility of binding and loosing.
With the other breath he speaks of it
as asking and receiving.
As I understand it, he has the same
kind of thing in mind when he refers
to the one as when he refers to
the other.
What is he thinking about?
What kind of situation does our Lord here
envisage?
Well, let's look at these two briefly before
we come to grapple with the heart of
the subject.
Binding and loosing, verse 18.
I tell you the truth.
Whatever you bind on earth will be bound
in heaven.
And whatever you loose on earth will be
loosed in heaven.
Now, I'm not going into some of the
detailed exegesis that that passage invites.
I simply want to take it at its
face value that whatever a Christian community here
upon earth, be it only two or three
gathering in Jesus' name, whatsoever they bind has
been bound in heaven or is bound in
heaven.
And whatsoever they loose is likewise loosed in
heaven.
In other words, they are able to bind
something and they are able to loose something
or loosen something.
A privilege which Jesus had already given to
Peter, the foundation member of the Christian Church
following his epochal confession of faith in Caesarea
Philippi, as you will notice in chapter 16
and verse 19, Jesus now gives to the
whole church, to the entire community of believers.
He's envisaging, of course, a local community of
men and women who believe in the Savior.
And he gives to them exactly what he
gave to Peter as an individual in chapter
16, the power to bind and to loosen.
The very same terms are employed in both
cases and it is quite impossible to find
any valid reason for distinguishing between them.
Now what's the nature of the authority that
evidently underlies the conception of binding and loosing?
I think the context tells us quite clearly.
The passage, if you'd like to look back
to verse 15, the passage envisages a professing
Christian who hears that his brother is offended.
Oh, let me read.
If your brother sins against you, go and
show him his fault just between the two
of you.
Your brother's done something against you.
He said something or he's done something.
What do you do?
Well, says our Lord Jesus, first of all
go to that brother or to that sister
and just the two of you together privately
talk it out.
Seek a reconciliation.
Let the offending person acknowledge his wrong and
put things right just the two of you
before God.
But now sometimes that doesn't work.
If that doesn't work, says the Lord Jesus,
he says to the one upon whom he
puts the responsibility for the initiative, he says,
take with you one or two witnesses.
And then try and explain what has happened
and try and get the truth out and
go through the process of seeking a reconciliation
as best you can.
And you have these two or three witnesses
with you so that they're witness to the
spirit of the whole episode as well as
to the content of what goes on between
the two of you.
Now if you can't make any headway that
way, then there is one final court of
appeal.
Take it to the church.
Take it to the congregation of God's people,
says Jesus.
And it is in that context that he
speaks about binding and loosing.
The Lord required that the matter be brought
before the church or congregation and added in
that context, if he refuses to listen to
them, tell it to the church.
If he refuses to listen even to the
church, treat him as you would a pagan
or a tax collector.
I tell you the truth, whatever you bind
on earth will be bound in heaven.
And whatever you loose on earth will be
loosed in heaven.
Your decision, what in that spirit will be
a decision that will be final, whether it
be to receive the offending party back into
the fellowship of the church as a penitent
who's been forgiven and they've forgiven one another
if both of them were wrong in what
has gone on.
The church's authority is final to receive the
penitent back into the fellowship or where there
is no repentance and no forgiveness to shut
that person out, out of fellowship and to
treat him as you would an uncircumcised and
a tax gatherer, to keep him outside the
fellowship of the church.
Those words of the second part of verse
17 reflect the final authority of the church
in dealing with such a matter.
If he refuses to listen even to the
church, treat him as you would a pagan
or a tax collector.
The decisions of the church are final and
the reason is not far to seek because
where two or three, however small the church
is, if it is a true church of
Jesus Christ, where two or three are gathered
together in my name says Jesus, I'm there
and I'm one of the participants in either
receiving the penitent or rejecting the impenitent and
if the two or three are in fellowship
with me and I am lord over them,
they and I together acting in fellowship can
bind or loosen, open or shut.
Authority is ours in fellowship, yours as a
church in fellowship with me.
So much for binding and loosing.
Asking and receiving, verses, verse 19.
Again he says I tell you and I'm
taking it as axiomatic that our Lord Jesus
is here referring to the same thing in
principle but he's using entirely different language.
Again I tell you that if two of
you on earth agree about anything you ask
for, it will be done for you by
my father in heaven.
What a very dangerous thing to say.
Well yes if you don't read the next
verse again.
For, because, where two or three come together
in my name there am I with them
ordering their thinking and their desiring and their
acting, what they ask for and how they
ask for it.
Let me repeat then it would appear to
me that our Lord is here again referring
to the same matter namely that of binding
and loosing but now uh in different language.
And if that is what he is doing
then he is referring to what would inevitably
be involved when Christians would have to face
the kind of moral issue envisaged in in
the incident or in the hypothetical incident suggested
in verses 15 to 17.
Such Christians when they find that the two
people who are at loggerheads with one another
can't come together, can't be reconciled, can't have
peace together what do they do?
Well they pray together, the congregation ultimately and
they think it through together and they decide
what they ought to pray and they discover
what they think is the will of God
and submitting the whole thing to the Lordship
of Jesus Christ as present with them, they
come to a decision.
And Jesus says when such a decision has
been arrived and you choose to ask that
the Lord would cast him out that is
binding.
Or you choose to ask that God would
receive him back into the family and bind
the offending party again to the family of
God into the fellowship and integrate him then
the congregation has the authority to do that
whatever you ask.
Now of course whereas the hypothetical circumstances envisaged
in verses 15 to 17 are clear and
the principle relates to that specifically in the
context.
I believe that the principle is in many
other areas than in the area when we
have such an incident taking place in the
church.
Let me put it like this if a
Christian congregation albeit comprising a mere handful, a
mere two or three believers plus the Lord
Jesus, that's the point, plus the head of
the church consciously present, active, moving, ministering to
his people, if there is just a group
of believers present with the Lord they're faced
with a problem they may be assured of
the effective nature of their intercessions and any
ensuing action they are called upon to do
that is in accordance with the will of
their Lord.
The immense possibility.
Now that brings me to an attempted explanation
of all this.
The validity of the promise and the text
explained.
How can this be so?
Isn't this an error here?
Isn't there something wrong here?
Isn't the Lord Jesus going a little bit
too far here?
Isn't he promising too much?
Well now if we are to appreciate the
provision with which the church was divinely endowed
in the terms of Matthew 18 19 and
20 we must take a broad view of
the whole New Testament teaching that is relevant
to the subject.
Now in principle and in embryo the explanation
I believe is implicit in our text.
It's all here in principle.
Christian believers can bind and unbind, ask and
receive because they meet in the name of
Jesus and all that that implies they meet
in the name of Jesus Christ the church's
head and Lord and are in a moral
and spiritual condition in which his presence among
them is honored and respected.
So that the prayer they offer or the
decision they come to is not simply their
decision per se but it is the decision
of the members plus the Lord.
He is involved in the decision making.
He is involved in the prayer that goes
to the throne of God and what he
says is this if you and I are
praying together if I have a part in
fashioning and formulating your prayers if your fellowship
and mine is so deep that I have
a say in your prayers those prayers are
infallible.
Now you see it hits me like this
if that is the case then you and
I have prayed many a prayer without being
in fellowship with Jesus Christ and the sooner
the better we confess it.
But what is implicit in our text is
elsewhere very much so explained and explained in
far greater detail and I want to turn
to some of the aspects in the explanation
of all this just now.
Now the first thing I want to do
is to look at the objective basis for
the church's authority in prayer.
The objective basis.
In the first place in this regard we
need to remember that Jesus Christ has accomplished
not only a total salvation for us in
the sense of saving us from our sins
he has done that but in accomplishing our
total salvation with the promise of a new
body and of our inhabiting a new heaven
and a new earth wherein righteousness is at
home.
He has done something beyond that.
He has also conquered the enemy of our
souls who would hinder us as we seek
to mature in our understanding of things spiritual
and in our exercising of our Christian privileges.
He has overcome Satan.
He has overcome Satan as he has overcome
sin.
So that there is nothing whatsoever that can
stand in our way that Jesus Christ has
not already dealt with.
Now again let me confess to you when
I say that it boomerangs and it tells
me if that is so then you have
done an awful lot of things in the
in the power of carnal self.
If this kind of thing is open then
you is possible then you are inexcusable for
so many things and this is exactly what
the text does do.
It tells us that we are inexcusable when
we pander to sin and Satan because our
Lord Jesus Christ has not only mustered sin
and temptation but he's lord over Satan.
So there is no reason for us to
falter no reason for us to sin.
Oh brethren brothers and sisters let us get
this.
Our Lord Jesus Christ has pardoned the transgressions
of his people.
He has justified us in Christ.
He has clothed us with a righteousness not
our own.
Then he has breathed his own spirit of
divine sonship into our human hearts crying Abba
Father.
So you see he has given us a
status and a standing in the presence of
God as sons and that means that we
can draw near to God.
We have the right to draw near and
to call him our Father in Christ Jesus
our Savior.
In our great high priest he has made
it possible and he's dealt with Satan.
He's opened up a new and living way
into the presence of God.
But now let me add to that let
me add to that what I've already referred
to namely the fact that our Lord Jesus
Christ has disarmed Satan so that you and
I can overcome all his subtleties if we
will.
Do you remember these words from Colossians chapter
2 verses 13 to 15?
Some of us were meditating upon them earlier
on in the year.
When you were dead in your sins says
Paul to the Colossians and in the uncircumcision
of your sinful nature God made you alive
with Christ as regeneration.
He forgave us all our sins having canceled
the written code with its regulations that was
against us and that stood opposed to us.
He took that away nailing it to the
cross and having and here's the point and
having disarmed the powers and authorities he made
a public spectacle of them triumphing over them
by the cross.
Jesus Christ has disarmed Satan.
He has done so in and through his
death and resurrection and it is on the
basis of this objective fact that we are
to understand our Lord's words about binding the
strong man or about binding and loosing or
about seeking what our the will of our
Father in heaven and seeking what God has
promised seeking to possess our possessions.
It is in this context that we are
to understand a word a word like this
Matthew 12 29.
Again says Jesus how can anyone enter a
strong man's house and carry off his possessions
unless he first ties up the strong man
binds the strong man then he can rob
his house.
Now Luke puts that even even stronger and
perhaps a little better.
Luke Luke's version goes a little like this
when a strong man fully armed guards his
own house his possessions are safe.
Now Satan is the strong man in this
in this image.
Satan is the strong man fully armed guarding
his own house and his possessions are safe.
All the dupes of Satan are safe in
his hand prisoners and they're safe there they
can't get away but when someone stronger attacks
and overpowers him he takes away the armor
in which the man trusted and divides up
the spoil.
Now Jesus Christ did that on the cross
and by the resurrection he overcame Satan he
took away his armor and Satan is no
longer master over men who trust in Christ.
Hebrews 2 and verse 14 expresses the very
same truth and perhaps even more forcefully since
the children have flesh and blood he too
shared in their humanity.
What for?
The answer so that by his death he
might destroy him who holds the power of
death that is the devil.
The word destroy means of course not not
annihilating that would not be true.
What the word literally means is this he
renders Satan's power ineffective.
That is ineffective to those who accept what
he has done and build on the basis
of that and have confidence in him as
such.
On account of this total victory of our
Lord over sin and Satan Paul pictures him
seated at the right hand of God in
the heavenly realms ruling every conceivable opposition to
himself and to his people.
Talk about breathtaking if there is a breathtaking
passage in the new testament surely this is
a nice one of them Ephesians 2 21
and 22 where Paul in praying for the
Ephesians prays that God would do certain things
for them according to the power which he
exerted when Jesus when Jesus was raised from
the dead and he goes on to say
that he has been raised far above all
rule and authority power and dominion and every
title that can be given not only in
the present age but also in the one
that is to come and God placed all
things under his feet.
You and I need the image of that
the imagery there.
Our Lord Jesus Christ has been crowned with
power and with authority and he is seated
above principalities and powers.
He is above every throne above every name
that can be named in this age or
the age that is to come.
There is no one anywhere that is higher
than he is.
He's Lord of all.
Now this is evidently what our Lord had
in mind when commissioning his disciples he said
all authority in heaven and on earth has
been given to me and because of that
I'm sending you everywhere because I have authority
everywhere.
I have authority in the uttermost parts as
well as in Jerusalem and I send you
to Jerusalem Judea Samaria the uttermost parts.
Why?
I've got authority over all.
They don't know me yet they've never heard
about me but I have authority over them
they're in my hands and I have authority
over them and I'm sending you out because
all authority has been given to me.
You go teach them what I've told you
every bit of it and you'll find that
I'm with you to the very end of
the age.
How is it that we can have any
authority in prayer weaklings sinners that we are
as saints?
I'll tell you basically because our Lord Jesus
Christ has gained authority and he shares it
with his people.
Christian men and women are so intimately identified
with their Lord in this his total victory
over sin and Satan that they may thus
effectively engage the enemy and overcome him if
they will.
Following his description of the elevation of our
Lord over every conceivable opposition in Ephesians 1
20 to 22 Paul makes this very significant
statement in Ephesians 2 verses 6 and 7
he says every word is important and God
raised us up with Christ and seated us
with him in the heavenly realms in Christ
Jesus in order that in the coming ages
he might show the incomparable riches of his
grace expressed in his kindness toward us in
Jesus Christ.
Now have you got that point?
Jesus is raised he's risen he's Lord he's
seated at the right hand of the majesty
upon high and there is no one above
him he's over all but now says Paul
when God raised us spiritually from the death
of sin he raised us up with his
son Jesus and not only were we raised
from the dead with him we ascended with
him and because of our intimate relationship with
him the bride with the bridegroom the body
with the head when the head was glorified
the body was glorified and we are associated
with him he he is not ashamed to
call us his brethren what is his has
been accomplished not simply for him personally no
no but specifically for us who belong to
him those whom the savior has quickened a
new life and redeemed by his blood he
has also bound in an indissoluble bond to
himself so that we are limbs of his
body and we are so intimately related to
him that if we choose to if we
have real faith in him if we're in
vital life union with him we may take
our stand in the heavenlies and we too
may claim our inheritance and bind satan and
come to our father in the name of
the son for petitions that have been worked
out between us and our lord and such
petitions are authoritative and infallible oswald saunders
in a book power a prayer power unlimited
uses or says this i believe it's toward
the end of a chapter on this very
subject of authority he he says something like
this i'm not sure whether i've got it
verbatim any power satan now exercises over us
is either because we fail to apprehend and
appropriate the completeness of christ's triumph or because
we have conceded territory to satan through tolerating
sin in our lives in either case the
remedy is clear the objective basis of this
kind of possibility is found in what christ
has done in his total victory over our
sin his total redemption gained for us and
in the fact that he is lord of
all principalities and powers and of all men
and women everywhere he's lord of all and
as such if we are in real fellowship
with him our actions and our prayers can
share in his authority in binding and loosing
in asking and receiving now the operative discipline
for the exercise of such authority all is
not yet said notice again the context in
which these words appear it is eloquent with
meaning and important instruction for the actualizing of
the kind of potential which our lord attributes
to even two or three humble believers meeting
in his name now you will want to
ask again as i've asked how can a
little group of people have such authority as
this ah is there a queue here is
there anything more than what we've said that
will give us some understanding of it i
want to suggest one or two things first
of all i want you to notice the
general atmosphere of sanctity that pervades this little
group of two or three with their lord
matthew 18 15 17 if thy brother sins
against you etc go to him put it
right that passage matthew 18 15 to 17
describes a moral and spiritual climate in which
sin and personal relationships are treated with the
uttermost seriousness by the individuals and by the
little community involved you see the atmosphere there
can only be described as one of sanctity
and honesty and openness in which each individual
member is very concerned that god is not
grieved and that nothing is said or done
to mar the fellowship and the glory of
the lord that sanctity and the authoritative praying
that asks and receives that binds and loosens
it all takes place in an atmosphere where
men and women are quick to put wrongs
right not to put rights wrong to confess
their sins if they've sinned against somebody else
to be reconciled to one another if there's
anything coming between two people and in that
atmosphere they can ask and receive that's the
first thing i think that's very suggestive then
i want you to notice that the particular
expression of unity in their prayers when people
are thus brought together and are thus bound
and acknowledge anything that may have come between
them and put it right and forget it
and bury it and don't remember where it's
been buried you know i've met many people
who say to me i've buried the hatchet
long ago but they remember where they buried
the hatchet and they go and have a
good look at the grave sometimes that's not
forgetting that's not forgiving that's something else there's
something far deeper here something far more godlike
here there's a forgetfulness of the things that
are behind but now you see when that
is done there emerges a unity a real
bond of unity these people are one together
they really belong to one another they really
love one another there's no sin between them
they allow no wall to be built between
them no separation to divide them they're bound
together and in this bond of holiness and
love and affection they can ask what they
will because their lord is honored they would
not ask for anything that is contrary to
his word they would not ask for anything
that is contrary to his spirit they would
not ask for anything that is contrary to
his glory the whole atmosphere is this the
glory of the lord is safe in their
hands you see such a people can ask
anything conversely when we are not there we
might as well play rock music as pray
to almighty god because if i regard iniquity
in my heart the lord will not hear
me the other feature is this the actual
expression of their human of their unanimity in
the requests they make again i tell you
that if two of you on earth agree
about anything you ask for it will be
done for you by my father in heaven
sometimes such requesting will require nothing but a
simple asking in order to receive sometimes i
say ask and it shall be given you
says jesus knock and it shall be open
seek and you shall find and sometimes it
is as simple as that mark tells us
therefore i tell you he says whatever you
or jesus said it mark records it whatever
you ask for in prayer believe that you
have received it and it will be yours
it's as simple as that in some cases
at other times however we may be required
to wrestle rather than rest to wrestle in
order to secure the long for prize there
are many passages in the new testament that
refer to this i have not opportunity now
to go into them let me just mention
two we've been studying collotions of latent right
at the beginning of chapter two in the
very first verse uh paul tells the collotions
uh he says how strenuously i exerted myself
on your behalf now the word exerted myself
it comes from a greek agon i was
fighting i had to fight i had a
battle it's a it's a kind of wrestle
perhaps more than a fight but at any
race there's an agony behind it the word
agony comes from the from from this root
and paul continues the same thought when in
in in in uh ephesians chapter 6 and
verse 12 he says for we wrestle not
against flesh and blood or as the niv
puts it our struggle is not against flesh
and blood but there is a a struggle
there is a wrestling what is the wrestling
well you see it is the attempt of
satan to frustrate our prayers it is the
attempt sometimes of good men to frustrate our
prayers sometimes it's the carnal flesh the old
man and the old nature that will rise
in up rise up in us and somehow
or other will muzzle us in our prayer
and we'll try to cut our faith short
and say no don't don't you're asking too
much it is this militant ministry of intercession
that is often required of the church we
too in the name of our lord must
bind the strong man in his name he's
already been bound by him but we in
our circumstances must take our armor upon ourselves
and in the name of jesus say to
him in certain circumstances i defy you in
the name of jesus and they overcame satan
by the blood of the lamb and the
word of their testimony here is a making
war against satan the whole book of the
revelation is interlaced with this concept of making
war against the enemy my friends what do
we know about this it's because of this
kind of background that we we ought to
have clear in our minds and the apostles
did it's because paul had such a background
to his thinking about prayer that he could
say to the corinthians though we live in
the world he says we do not wage
war as the world does the weapons we
fight with or the weapons of our warfare
as king james puts it the king james
version we the weapons we fight with are
not the weapons of the world on the
contrary they have divine power to demolish strongholds
we demolish arguments and every pretension that sets
itself up against the knowledge of god and
we take captive every thought to make it
obedient to our lord jesus christ how do
you do it by this means in the
name of jesus in the presence of jesus
by his presence in the fellowship the living
lord and ourselves come to a decision and
sin is not allowed to rest in our
company and in that atmosphere we know what
to ask we rest in the sufficiency of
the name of jesus sometimes we may have
to wait long for the answer not for
it to be heard but for it to
be given you never pray in the name
of jesus but that god hears your prayer
but you and i may have to pray
and wait for the prayer that he has
heard to be answered in the time which
is according to his will it is a
striking fact that some of the godliest and
most able prayer warriors of the ages have
had to wait and wait long for the
answers but they waited and this is the
point they knew that they had overcome satan
they knew that they were praying in the
will of god they knew that the name
of jesus was invincible and they waited and
waited until the answer came now this is
very important in every field but it's especially
important in christian ministry and on the mission
field do you know that it was seven
years before cary baptized his first convert in
india was there a man of prayer to
compare with cary william cary it was seven
years before judson won his first disciple in
burma have you read judson's prayers morrison toiled
seven years before the first chinese was brought
to christ moffat waited seven years to see
the first movement of the spirit in becky
on the land as it was called henry
richards worked seven years in the congo before
the first convert called upon the name of
jesus now i've mentioned these name because they
these names because they are among those warriors
who knew how to make war in the
name of jesus and how to claim the
promises they were not people who dabbled with
praying and and left it there and you
didn't know because their prayers were so general
whether they'd asked for anything or not and
whether what they'd asked for had been answered
some of our prayers are in that category
they're so vague they're so general nobody knows
whether we've been answered or not these men
prayed specifically they had to wait seven years
but the point is you see they so
believed that god had heard them and they
so believed in the privilege of prayer and
in the authority of jesus they kept on
waiting waiting may have to be our lot
but waiting after praying in the manner envisaged
here is simply awaiting for a result that
is divinely assured now my friends i am
terribly humbled by this i don't know how
you feel but i feel as if i
had not begun really to engage in the
real warfare of pray and i invite you
i urge you in a day such as
ours when sin is so rampant and the
ordinary christian witness in society is making very
little headway organized missions of an evangelistic nature
they're hardly touching hardly scratching the surface of
things however many people profess conversion and i'm
not pouring scorn upon that kind of ministry
but you and i need something of a
dimension that we've not yet known our world
needs something of the dimension of pentecost and
as you and i move forward into a
new fall and all its demands and all
its services and all its challenging situations brothers
and sisters in christ i tell you there
is one primary need and that is to
know how to pray right and when we
know how to pray to pray i am
ashamed from time to time when i hear
of the few people from our knox membership
who gather in public prayer i am really
ashamed and i ask myself lord is this
due to my preaching and influence have i
so completely failed and i
wonder i'm telling you my heart because you're
the most lovable people i've ever known and
the most gracious people i've ever ministered to
but why is there no more urgent seeking
of the face of god here obviously there
must no be no real awareness of the
privilege and of the priority of it i
speak to you as one that loves you
i don't want to quarrel with any of
you i don't believe me but i fear
either we don't believe this or if we
do believe it we we think that something
else will do the work and god has
said no there is a kind of evil
spirit in our day and age that is
eating at the soul of our society that
will not go out with anything less than
prayer and fasting i covet your
cooperation in this i'd like you to pray
that the lord would teach us together as
pastor and people to pray like this will
you pray for me that i should be
able to do this will you seek the
lord's face that we should be able to
recognize the basis upon which we stand and
together be able to claim the promises i
assure you where there is a congregation and
there is a real nucleus of men and
women that are prepared to pay the price
to pray like this to learn to pray
like this you'll see your miracles you'll see
your miracles for god is no man's debtor
thank you for bearing with me thank you
for listening i'll trust you that we may
work together not only in the way we
have worked together but perhaps more especially in
this avenue of intercession that we shall be
able to accomplish something on our knees in
our several stations wherever we are that the
work that goes on here shall be a
work that will stand and abide and shine
to the glory of god and that men
will know that it is not accomplished by
man but by the right hand of the
most high god let us pray oh god
our father it is sometimes very difficult to
look into the realities of your word and
truth we acknowledge our lord what is known
to you that it is far easier sometimes
to gloss over the scriptures and just to
take what appeals to us and leave the
rest sleeping silently do not disturb the slumbering
truths but we thank you there are times
when the truth comes a light and a
glow and we cannot leave it because it
doesn't leave us and we pray that your
truth concerning the subject before us tonight may
pursue us may make us uncomfortable until it
wins us over and gives us a sense
of priorities and enables us as individuals and
as a company of people and others who
are gathered with us here tonight enables us
all to exercise the kind of ministry of
intercession which is our privilege in the name
of our conquering lord oh heavenly father hear
our cry because we ask these things with
the forgiveness of our sins in jesus name
amen