Pray

Q: What does the Bible say about prayer?

The Bible emphasizes the importance of prayer as a means of communicating with God, relying on His grace and provision. Scripture teaches that prayer is an essential aspect of the believer's life, as seen in Colossians 4:2, which encourages us to continue in prayer with thanksgiving. Prayer is not merely a ritual but an expression of our dependence on God and recognition of His sovereignty. It connects our hearts to our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who intercedes for us at the right hand of God. Thus, prayer becomes a vital means through which we seek God's will, express our needs, and give thanks for His grace.

Q: How do we know prayer is important for Christians?

Prayer is vital for Christians as it fosters a relationship with God and is a means of grace for spiritual sustenance. The significance of prayer in a Christian's life cannot be overstated. Colossians 4:2 admonishes believers to continue in prayer, indicating that it should be a constant practice. This constancy reflects our awareness of our need for God's help and guidance in all aspects of life. Moreover, the act of prayer acknowledges our position as dependents on God’s grace, reminding us that we derive strength and wisdom solely from Him. It is through prayer that we align our will with God's and seek His direction in our lives, reinforcing the relationship with our Savior and relying on His redemptive work.

Q: Why should we pray without ceasing?

Praying without ceasing reinforces our reliance on God and cultivates an ongoing relationship with Him. The exhortation to pray without ceasing, found in 1 Thessalonians 5:17, encourages Christians to maintain a constant dialogue with God. This continual practice helps Christians recognize their need for divine assistance and grace in every moment of life. By regularly bringing our thoughts, concerns, and thanksgivings before God, we foster a deeper relationship with our Lord, which enriches our faith and understanding of His workings in our lives. As we persevere in prayer, we also find strength to endure struggles, knowing that God hears us and responds according to His will. Hence, unceasing prayer is not just a duty but an expression of our dependence on God’s merciful hand.

Q: What is the role of Christ in our prayers?

Christ acts as our mediator, ensuring our prayers are heard by God through His righteousness. According to Scripture, particularly Hebrews 9:24, our Lord Jesus Christ serves as the mediator between us and God, appearing before the Father on our behalf. This mediatorial role means that our prayers are presented through His righteousness and merit rather than our own. When we pray in the name of Jesus, we acknowledge that it is by His authority and grace that we have access to God. Understanding this enables believers to approach God's throne of grace with confidence, knowing that Christ intercedes for us, ensuring that our prayers are aligned with the Father's will, ultimately leading to our spiritual growth and sanctification.

I wanna bring a message today from Colossians chapter four. And the title of our message is a single word, pray, pray. I could have called it prayer or other things, but pray. I use that word for the title because the Lord Jesus tells us to pray. He tells us to pray. There's a few verses here in Colossians chapter four. In the first verse, it says, masters, given to your servants that which is just and equal, knowing that you also have a master in heaven.

So masters on earth, we don't have slave masters. There are some, but not in this country, at least not legally. There are those who act as slave masters over the people they are in control of, and that's wrong. If they do have servants, they're to treat them with equity, just and equal, it says. And we who have been serving, had to serve others for whatever reason, whether it be an employer or in the armed services or whatever it was, we recognize that role of a master. We understand what it means to have to report to somebody, to have to do what they tell us to do. And there's this natural dissatisfaction that comes from that, because we think, well, if I was the master, I wouldn't treat me that way, or whatever it is, but that's not what this verse is saying here. It says, masters, give your servants that which is just and equal.

And so if you are someone who has been given God-delegated authority, he's teaching you here that you should remember your master in heaven. And therefore, you are to treat those who report to you as one who has a master. You're not at liberty to do what you want. You can only act according to your master's will, your master's word, and your master's treatment of you. If we treat others with injustice, then we have a master to report to, and he is just. He will treat us with equity.

So the Lord Jesus is our master, but this should, more than anything, endear him to us. Because if he is our master, then everything is well, isn't it? If the Lord is our shepherd, then all is good, and we serve the Lord Christ. We serve the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's why he said in the previous chapter, whatever you do, in verse 23 of chapter three, he says, whatever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not to men, a good master. And he says in, let's see, where is it, in the verses before this, In verse, sorry, oh, here it is, in verse 24, Matthew, I'm sorry, Colossians 3, 24, knowing, do everything you do unto the Lord and not to men, knowing that of the Lord, your master, you shall receive the reward of the inheritance. For you serve the Lord Christ." There's that relationship we have to Christ. He is our master.

And the reward that he gives is a reward of inheritance. He made us children, children of God. He made us heirs of God, h-e-i-r-s, heirs. He made us to be inheritors of God, of God himself. Our inheritance is the Lord himself, the Lord Jesus Christ. He was given for us. He gives himself for us and gives himself to us and all we are, we have in him. So he is our master. And we're to remember that so that we do what we do for our master, for his glory. We do it in his name, by his authority. We do it in crediting him to have given us this relationship to Him, to serve Him as our Master, in love for our Master, as He loved His Father as His Master.

He served for us. We're to serve Him. We're bought with a price. We are not our own. Body and soul, we have been bought by the precious blood of Christ. Therefore, Because we're bought with a price, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.

That's what he says in 1 Corinthians 6 20. So that's the first verse here of Colossians 4. He's given us these exhortations in the first six verses that are following all that he laid as groundwork in the previous chapters. So these things are to be the result of, they're to be the breathing out of the life of the believer because God has revealed the truth on which our lives stand. Our life is Christ. Christ in you is the hope of glory. Your life is hid with God in Christ. Christ is our life and when he shall appear, you shall appear with him in glory.

So these things should cause us to see we do not live as citizens of this world anymore. I was thinking last night for some reason, I was thinking about how in the U.S. they allow non-citizens to own land. But in heaven it's not that way. Only citizens belong there. Only citizens of heaven are in heaven. And our citizenship is in heaven because the Lord Jesus Christ has made us citizens of heaven.

He has made us children of God, heirs of God by his redeeming blood, and has joined us to himself by his spirit. And in union with Christ, all of his life, all of his grace, and our relationship to God is the result of our connection to him, that union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, that's given to us as the motivation here. Live the life God has given you in Christ at the price of His blood.

Live as the truth that's been revealed to you is the reality. Faith brings the realities of unseen things into our present enjoyment. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. Faith is the evidence of things not seen. All that we see with our eyes and know by our senses in this world is dissolving.

The best of man's intellect in this world, the best they can do is to model The physical creation upheld by the word of Christ and that creation is fading away. If you take the best equations of the most gifted physicists, the best they can do is tell you how the planets move and how atoms move in this world. All of that is upheld by the word, the command of Christ. Should we honor those men because they've been able to recognize these patterns that follow mathematical equations? Or should we recognize the creator, the one who made it all and upholds it all?

The one we serve, the one who is our God and our Savior. And the emphasis is on Savior. He is our God. He is our Savior. So he says in chapter four, in verse two, continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving. Continue in prayer. He's talking about a constancy, not leaving off, a frequency. It says in 1 Thessalonians 5, in verse 16, he says, Rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing. Prayer is something we do when we have a need. Prayer is something we do when we want to express thanksgiving to God. Prayer is what we do when we need to be saved.

Today is Mother's Day. One thing I remember about my mom is that she prayed for us. She prayed for us. All the years I remember about her, she prayed for us. My daughter Hannah sent a picture of her newborn today, and he had a newborn smile on his face. She said, I was praying for him, and he smiled, and I took his picture. It was her happy Mother's Day gift from her newborn son. Prayer is something you do as a mother because you realize the weightiness of raising children. Here, my daughter holds a newborn son in her arms.

Someday, by God's good providence, he'll be a man. God has given that boy to her to raise to be a man. She is not up to the task. What does she do? She's going to ask the Lord to give her the grace needed to do what God has placed in her hands. That's why you pray, because you have a need greater than you can meet. You go to God knowing that not only does he give you life and food and breath and all things, But He gives you all that's needed for you to fill the role He has placed in your hands, the stewardship He has given to you. And what a weighty thing that is. God has given us a stewardship in this life.

So that's the first thing we notice about prayer is prayer is making our requests known to God. because we want to serve the Lord Christ. We want to be faithful servants to our gracious and almighty master. And so we ask our master to give us so that we might have to give to him in stewardship over what he's given to us. And the first thing we notice is that he's our master.

He knows what it is to be a servant. Our master served us. He knows what it is to be a servant and what it is to be a faithful servant and how he gave his life in service to his father for us, a ransom. He didn't come to be served. He came to serve and give his life for many. And he, therefore, is our master. Whoever humbles himself will be exalted, but whoever exalts himself will be abased, and God has highly exalted him because he stooped to serve his people for their salvation as our master. And so the Lord Jesus Christ tells us by the Apostle Paul, continue in prayer. Watch in the same with thanksgiving.

One of the aspects of prayer is not only our utter dependence upon God, it's the breathing out of the life of the Spirit of God in us, which is breathed out in faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ. Life has to have breath, and the breath that God gives us is His Spirit, and the Spirit by which we breathe this life is prayer to God.

And we don't pray to God directly. We pray to God through our mediator. We come to Him in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We come to Him by the Word, by the authority, by the warrant of His Word. The Lord Jesus Christ said always to ask in His name. with his authority, by his authority, by his virtuous merit, by his holiness, by his power, for his honor, for his glory, because he made us acceptable to God in his blood. God cannot hear us. God cannot receive us. He cannot look upon us. But in the Lord Jesus Christ, he himself has provided for us.

And this should always be the object of our faith, Christ for me. Christ coming, Christ living, Christ serving, Christ suffering, Christ dying, Christ rising, ascending and seated at God's right hand for me. He is the object of our faith. He is the author and finisher of it. He gives his faith to us.

Whatever Christ did, his Father acknowledged, that is righteous. That is righteous. Oh, see my son, hear my son, see him serving, see him speaking only his Father's word, doing only his Father's will, fulfilling the law, magnifying the law that was in his heart, see his heart beating one with God. And the Father justified him in all that he did in the Lord Jesus Christ.

He gave to God all that he did by which he was justified as from him for us. So that what he did, he gives to us before God. We come to God in what he did. All of His heart's desire and love and service and humility, His obedience and sufferings for His people, to the honor and glory of God, He gives to us as our justifying righteousness, as our cleansing. He took the condemnation that our sins deserve as His condemnation. He bore our sins in His own body on the cross that we, being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness. He washed us from our sins in his own blood. He redeemed us to God by his blood. This is what the Lord Jesus Christ has done. This is our master. This is our God. This is our savior. And he tells us, continue in prayer.

You have nothing. You can do nothing apart from me. Ask. Seek. Knock. Everyone who asks Jesus Christ by his authority, by his promise, by his faithfulness said, whoever asks shall receive, whoever seeks shall find, and whoever knocks, it shall be open to him. You have not, in the book of James, through the apostle James, he says, you have not because you ask not. And when you ask, you ask amiss because you're asking to consume it on your own lusts.

The Lord here says, continue in prayer. Pray. Pray without ceasing. Breathe out prayer by the faith God has given us in Christ to see God's greatness, his full and all sufficient supply that he would even allow us to come into his presence by the blood of his son.

You hear songs, and I've sung them before, and they talk about making an offering to God. A lot of Christian music falls short of declaring the gospel. It frustrates me. But I don't have the skills to write music or even to compose it. God has given us the composition here in the word.

One of the things that I hear, though, is in songs is they say, I bring my offering. And they'll even go so high as to say, I bring myself as an offering. It's all I have to give. I think about those words carefully because here's the truth. God gave the offering, the only offering that he accepts. He gave it for us. The only offering I have to give to God is what Christ gave of himself to God. That's my offering. But I didn't do it. I didn't give it. I only hear what God has done for me. He gave himself for me. The son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

Galatians 2.20.

Now we're to continue in prayer and we think, I know that you may not have these thoughts, but there's this background subconscious behavior, this attitude that creeps in that's contrary to the truth of the gospel. And I'm confessing it in shame. This is a sermon for me. Pray. Continue in prayer. Watch in the same. And the attitude that we have that is wrong is that God's taking care of everything. I'll just leave it to him. Well, it is good that you trust God. It's good that you consider these things.

But there's something that is reciprocal, something that results from God's watering the earth. from the light of the gospel. It produces something. It produces fruit to God. And that fruit is coming again to the Lord, my Creator and Savior, to save me, to give me this life in spirit. Prayer is the expression of one who understands their complete dependence upon God in his grace.

Not only for life, we should be thankful. We should petition him for life. We shouldn't presume. We should give him thanks for everything. Because he's the source, he's the giver of all good things. But we should also thank him most especially for salvation, but also for his provisions in our life. He said in 1 Thessalonians 5, where I read a moment ago, he says, rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks. In everything give thanks.

I read another quote. I was gonna read it to you. It was in the same bulletin from the San Diego church last week. Bruce Crabtree quoted this from Don Fortner. Bruce said that dear Don Fortner used to say, quote, don't judge God by his providence. That's what we tend to do, right?

Well, look, things are going bad. Where's God? It seems like evil has got the upper hand, and the judge and justice is not seen. What's happening in the world? Don't judge God by his providence, Don said, but judge his providence by him. And if you understand that, what it means is he's saying that we don't interpret what we see with our eyes and our understanding as far as our eyes and understanding can go. We judge what is happening in light of God's own character in his word, in his works. All that he does is holy. Psalm 145 verse 17 says, all of his works are done in righteousness. All of God's ways are holy.

So when we pray, we're coming to God and we're looking at life from the perspective of his view. From His Word, what's important to God is what should be important to us. And what's important to God is His Son. the salvation of his people, spiritual things, because the physical things are fading away. Set your affections on things above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God. Not on things on the earth, not the soap bubbles, not the vapors of this world or the flowers that fade. Put your affections on spiritual things, on the righteousness. of the Lord Jesus Christ as your own righteousness, as those things God has promised in His everlasting Word, His covenant of grace made in Christ's blood.

Ask Him to do for you as He has said concerning His Son. That's the prayer that we need to pray. What should we pray? Well, we should pray the will of God. What is the will of God? What is the will of God? to believe on His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to come to His Son, to find our all in Him, to express our dependence upon Him in everything, especially life and righteousness, everything, our sin, our problem, everything, giving God the glory in everything, coming to God through His precious blood. That's what prayer is. It's coming to God through the blood of Jesus. coming to him.

Now, this says continue in prayer, and that immediately convicts me, doesn't it? I want to pray. I want to pray right. I don't want to pray off the top of my head. I want prayer to come from my heart. I want it to be given to me by God. And yet I find such little prayer according to what I should pray. It seems like I'm always thinking or talking to the Lord in some way, but this continuing in prayer always convicts me of falling short. I was thinking about this.

Every week as I'm preparing the sermon, I'm asking the Lord, Lord, you know, I cannot do this. I feel ill qualified, completely incapable of accomplishing anything. of any value, Lord, would you speak? Would you apply your word to these people? Would you give by your grace through the Lord Jesus Christ from his throne, your word and open it for us? Make us know you, cause us to come to you, put a desire in our heart for Christ alone and help us to find our all in him and come to him day by day, moment by moment. So those are the kind of things that we pray, don't we? You've heard those fables that say, if you had three wishes, what would you wish for?

Well, notice here in chapter 4, in verse 12, Colossians 4, verse 12, Epaphras was the pastor of this church. And the apostle Paul says, Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, obviously he trusted Christ as his master, he salutes you. Always laboring fervently for you in prayers. That is a commendable thing, isn't it? Epiphras always laboring fervently for you in prayers.

Well, I wonder what he prayed. Oh, look, there it is. It says that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. We're not up here to make you rich. We're not up here to make you healthy. We're up here in our discourse with one another to build you up in Christ. Pray according to that.

Pray that God would accomplish His desire for His people in you, in your children, in your parents, in whoever God has put in your life, in the relationship, husbands, wives, children, fathers, servants, masters, all these things. Pray that the Lord would give this to us. Pray. Epaphras prayed that the saints might stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. And we know what that will is, isn't it? To be found in Christ.

In Colossians chapter one and verse three, the apostle said, we give thanks to God and the father of our Lord Jesus Christ praying always for you. We pray, we thank God for the hope that he's given us in glory. And he says here in the same chapter in verse 9, for this cause, chapter 1 verse 9, for this cause we also since the day we heard do not cease to pray for you. And he expresses what he prays for and to desire. that you might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might according to His glorious power unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness. And he goes on, and giving thanks to the Father who made us, qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints.

There's our missing cables. Thank you. Yeah. All right. You see how the Lord provides? They brought our cables, our missing cables were returned. All right. But notice how the content of their prayers was that God would give them a knowledge of His will. And the result of giving them that knowledge is that they would walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing because we cannot please God unless we walk according to His will.

And His will is that we see and believe His Son. And He goes on and He says, and so that you might also be strengthened in the knowledge of His will with all might according to His glorious power. You see, it all comes from Him. The light, the faith, the power. And this is why, because in God's will, we are going to endure And he wants us to understand his view, his word, his will in this world, so that we might have patience and long suffering with joyfulness under all our afflictions.

So we pray for that. Jesus told his disciples, when you pray, one of the things he asked them to pray for is give us this day, our daily bread. We need fresh supplies of the gospel given to us from God, from Christ on his throne in our heart by the Holy Spirit. We need that as our daily bread.

Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. He also told his disciples, when you pray, ask the Lord, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Only Christ can deliver us from evil. Only he can do it.

So we go to him, we appeal to him. And that's what I was having Brad read in Matthew 15. Turn with me back to that text of scripture. I love this account of this woman. This woman is given to us for a reason, many reasons. And one of them is to teach us to pray. Because in this woman we see God's gift to her, a gift of salvation. She came to the Lord Jesus.

She was not a Jew. She was a heathen Gentile. She was from a country. of ill repute, a country under the judgment of God. The judgment of God was declared in the Old Testament against Tyre and Sidon, a wicked, wicked place. That's where she was from, a wicked, wicked place.

Because the Lord Jesus Christ came to this earth. He came into this world, a cursed place. He came to save that which was lost. He comes to the wicked to save them from their sins, from our iniquities. Remember last week in Acts chapter three, verse 26, God has raised up Christ that he might bless you and turning away every one of you from his iniquities.

So this woman was from a nation well known to be wicked people. And aren't we? We're of the kingdom of darkness. And so she comes to the Lord Jesus Christ and Christ, the Lord, our Lord and Savior, promised he would save all those who come to him. He said, him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. In no wise. What a blessing that is, isn't it? That the Lord Jesus Christ doesn't cast out sinners. He came into the world to save sinners. He doesn't cast them out. This was his father's will. It wasn't like he's out there blazing a trail on his own. No, this is the Godhead.

This is the revelation of who God is. He came to save sinners, to save them from their sins, to save them and bring them to God, to save them from the uttermost. And his love, God's love for his people draws his people to the Lord Jesus Christ. They have nothing to offer, but he gave his son He gave his son an offering for them, and he brings them to himself.

And so this woman is that. In verse 22 of Matthew 15, it says that the woman of Canaan came out of the same coast of Tyre and Sinai and cried to Jesus. This is prayer, isn't it? Crying to the Lord Jesus. And this is what she said. She said, have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David. That's a good prayer, isn't it? I would say that's a perfect prayer. Son of David means Christ. And she called him Lord. He certainly is the Lord. The thief on the cross said, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. He acknowledged Christ as the Lord and King, the Lord of glory.

She does too. Well, then why is it? And she wasn't even praying for herself personally, but for her daughter, who was grievously vexed with the devil. This is a deliverance from evil. Deliver us from evil. She came to the one who alone could deliver her from evil, from the devil. Her daughter, completely under the control of Satan, who can deliver from Satan's hand, only Christ. And why does he do it? For his mercy's sake, for his great fame, for his name's sake, for his mercy, to deliver from Satan. And so you would expect the Lord Jesus to immediately, oh, what a good prayer, and answer her prayer.

But that's not what happened. It says in verse 23, he answered her not a word. He eventually did, but not at this time. And that the appearance, the response that Christ gave to her would make it seem as if he was not going to answer her. But she did not interpret providence She didn't interpret God by providence. She interpreted the providence by God, by His character. The one who is the King of glory is also the one whose glory is to show mercy to sinners.

So He answered her, not a word. So what does she do? She goes to His disciples. She pleads with them. And what did she find when she tried to go to the disciples so that the disciples would intercede for her to the Lord? What happened? The disciples interceded for her against her to the Lord. It says, and then his disciples came and besought.

They begged Jesus saying, send her away. She cries after us. Very irritating. It's just wearing us out. She will not stop. Besides, she's a woman of Canaan. But he answered and said in verse 24, I'm not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. She heard that. She heard that.

I'm only sent to those God has chosen to send me to. What do you do when you hear that the Lord saves only His elect? What do you do when you hear that God has to save because salvation is of the Lord? That it's in His hand, that He accomplishes only He can, only He will. What do you do?

You get all indignant in your pride and say, I deserve better. I'm entitled to something. Others are saved. Why not me? No, no, that's not what she did. It says that when he said this. She came and she worshiped him. We only worship the one who is sovereign, who does What he does without compromise, according to the holy truth of God, according to his will, we can only be saved according to that one who cannot compromise, but who saves by his grace, by his provision, by his offering. So she came, she worshipped him, and she said, Lord, help me. Another perfect prayer. How many times have you prayed that way?

Like I said, to all appearances, the Lord was not going to help her. What did she do? She was convinced that he could help her, that he would help her, that he was gracious to help sinners. That he had power over the evil that controlled her daughter.

So she kept making her prayer. She was using importunity. Importunity means it's an irritating, annoying continuance that can't be shut up. And she wouldn't stop. And so he said, and this is all to draw out the work of his grace in her heart because she saw him in her pleas. And she said. He answered her, it's not right.

It's not meat to take the children's bread and cast it to dogs. Okay, so he's sovereign and now he's calling her a dog. And notice what she says, truth, Lord, master. Yet the dogs and the master allows them. The master allows the little dogs to come under his table and eat the crumbs from the bread that he gives to his children.

That's what she's saying here. That's faith in Christ, isn't it? He says so. And then Jesus said to her, oh, woman, great is thy faith, be it unto thee, even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour. You see, she needed, she came to him, she prayed, she besought him for mercy. She asked him to help her. She worshiped him and she would not give him any rest. In Ezekiel 36 and verse 37, the Lord says, for this I will be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them. God is pleased to work through the prayers he gives to his people.

And yet, you know what happens when we read this? You know what you're probably feeling even now is that my spirit is willing, but my flesh is weak. Isn't that what Jesus told the disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane when they fell asleep? While he's suffering under the wrath of God, he says, watch and pray, and they fall asleep. Don't you feel like that? I know it's important. I know I'm in need. I have children and so on, and yet I fall asleep. What do we do? Turn with me to John chapter 17. I hope that in this you will see and you will fall at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ and you will cry out, Oh, great. How great is my God and Savior. John chapter 17, he says this in verse nine.

You that are told and taught by Christ to pray, to come to him, To his throne, it's a throne of grace, this is what he says. To his father, I pray for them. I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but for them which thou has given me, for they are thine. The Lord Jesus Christ prays for his people. Look at verse 20. Neither pray I for these alone, not his 12 disciples, which were only 11 at this point, but for them also, which shall believe on me through their word.

The apostle Paul wrote these words in Colossians. He was a minister, a servant of Christ. Christ sent him. I believe the words Paul wrote as words from Christ. I cling to them. As the Lord knows, with everything that I am and all that I am, by God's grace, I cling to the words that God has written through the Apostle Paul as my salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

Do you cling to that? Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, ye rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. He prays for us. Don't you find comfort in that? What does that make you do when you hear those words, I pray for them? What does it make you do? It makes me want to go to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Indeed, it makes me go to him and say, Lord, pray for me. My only hope and all of my sufficiency is that the Lord Jesus Christ would bring me to God when He appears before God in His own precious blood, the Lord His God. gave him to shed in offering for us, and that Christ would carry us with him into God's presence by his precious blood and pray, intercede, advocate, speak, and be there for us.

He appears, according to Hebrews 9 verse 24, he appears in the presence of God for us. We have such a high priest who is set on the right hand of the majesty on in the heavens. And therefore, we are to come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need, continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving.

When we're thankful, it means God did it. It means He took the initiative. It was His design, His provision, His grace. All of it is from Him and to Him again, to the praise of His name by the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we come to God, Lord, for Christ's sake, hear the voice of my Savior. Hear the blood of my Savior, the one who is the judge of all. Hear Him as my Savior and receive from Him full answer as my surety. Hear His plea. Let His blood plead for me in your presence and give me that life through grace because of His righteousness to trust Him and to worship Him and to unceasingly come to Him. Like that woman in Luke chapter 18, she would not let the judge go. I need to be delivered from my adversary. I need to be delivered from my sins. Lord, save me.

For Christ's sake, let's pray. Father, we pray that you would bless your word to your people. Help us to know that our salvation is that Jesus died for me, that he prayed for me. and that we in our hearts would find it therefore as the warrant of His own word, His authority, His faithfulness, His blood, His righteousness to come to you by Him and say, Lord, plead for me. Plead Him for me. Lord Jesus, plead for us. Intercede for us and make the gospel of your grace successful in our hearts and in this world for the salvation of your people, for the honor of your great name. Help us to worship you and to see your glory in the cross. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Pray

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about prayer?

How do we know prayer is important for Christians?

Why should we pray without ceasing?

What is the role of Christ in our prayers?

Sermon Transcript

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Pray

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about prayer?

How do we know prayer is important for Christians?

Why should we pray without ceasing?

What is the role of Christ in our prayers?

Sermon Transcript

About Rick Warta

Comments

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