Prayers That Cause the Son to Stand Still

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern

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Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

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And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to Saint John, the 16th chapter.

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Jesus said, His disciples said,

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Ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech. Now we know that you know all things and you do not need anyone to question you.

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This is why we believe that you came from God. This is the gospel of the Lord. All right, it's recent history.

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Russia invaded Ukraine, right? That little pop quiz here to see if you were paying attention all the way back when they first invaded.

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What was the first thing the Russians attacked? What did they go for first? And if you sit there and go,

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Kiev? No, you're not. Think in cities. First thing you have to do when you invade another country.

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We did the same thing, by the way, when we did that whole desert storm operation. You all remember that thing, right?

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What did we go after first? Not bridges. Communication. You had to set down the communication ability of your foe.

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If you knock out their communications, then what happens is that, well, soldiers out in the field aren't hooked up to headquarters properly.

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They're not getting the right orders. They don't know who to attack. And think of it this way. It's a good tactic.

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You go after communications, and then you pick off the soldiers kind of one at a time. That was their first target.

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And I would note, the devil knows this all too well. In my time of being a

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Christian apologist and noting different heresies and stuff like this, one of the things I've noticed is that where there is egregious false teaching, there is also false teaching as it relates to prayer.

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And this is not an accident. If you were to think about it, the devil is all about knocking down communication.

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He doesn't want you to hear properly the word of God. But even more important, he wants to make sure that God doesn't hear from you.

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And so you'll note, in Rome, this is an example. In Rome, they pray to saints.

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They pray to the Virgin Mary. When was the last time you prayed to Saint Teresa? I would note that there's actually a

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Saint Barbara. My wife is named Barbara. Santa Barbara, right? Okay, and I find this to be quite appropriate.

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Santa Barbara is the patron saint of artillery men in the military. I think this works.

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I think this works. This theme fits. So all of that being said, you'll note, though, what use is it to pray to dead saints?

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Are you communicating with what our epistle text said is the one mediator between God and man,

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Christ? Uh -uh, you're not. What's the point in praying to dead saints? Well, I would argue that the whole point is to cut off communication between you and God.

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You might as well be speaking into the air. But evangelicalism isn't any worse. In fact, here

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Christ says in our gospel text, He says that, Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the

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Father in my name, He will give it to you. And you'll note there are a lot of people who think, well, what does that mean?

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Well, to pray in Jesus's name is just to tack on the words, in Jesus's name, at the end of whatever you're praying for.

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And that means that God's going to give it to you. So I've noted in the past that I have this particular lust of mine.

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It's a besetting sin. It's a lust for an Aston Martin. But the more

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I think about it, an Aston Martin really wouldn't be a practical vehicle up here. You know what I'm saying here? That thing would probably skid out and be in the ditch, and it would be a very expensive set of repairs.

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You know, having an Aston Martin that just doesn't seem to fit. I think a Ford's a little better. But all of that being said, if I were to say,

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Lord, I want an Aston Martin in the name of Jesus, should I then be looking in my email to see if the tracking number has been sent so that I know when my

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Aston Martin is going to arrive? No. What does it mean to pray in the name of Jesus?

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It means to pray according to his will, which means you might want to spend a little bit more time listening to scripture to figure out what the will of Christ is, what it is to pray in his name is all about.

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And if you're sitting there going, well, those televangelists, Ken Copeland, those guys basically say that you can decree and declare and proclaim and all this kind of stuff, and that means that God has to give it to you.

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I would note that James, in his epistle, has a few words that contradict Mr. Copeland and others, right?

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What does James say? You have not because you ask not. Notice how important prayer is.

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And then you ask and you don't receive because you ask with a wicked intent in order to, well, basically fill your passions.

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And so that's not what that text means either. But I would also note that a lot of people, they have been taught, and it's a terrible doctrine, a terrible doctrine, and you have guys who teach it, kind of like Stephen Furtick, this idea that we need to learn how to pray audacious prayers.

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Would you consider your prayers to be audacious? And you're going, well, what do you mean by that?

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And they say things like this. They say things like, well, God is insulted by small, meager prayers.

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You need to up your prayer game and pray for big things. But in the Lord's Prayer, did we not pray for daily bread?

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Seems kind of like a meager thing here. And here's what they do. They take Joshua chapter 10, the story of the sun standing still, right?

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And it is about prayer, by the way. And then, well, Stephen Furtick in his book called

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Sun Stands Still, you know, bestseller, right? He basically says, you gotta pray audacious prayers like, well, you know,

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Joshua, have you prayed a prayer where the sun stood still? You need to up your game.

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And I know this is gonna sound a little bit weird. I agree, at least with this concept, that we must be praying sun stand still prayers.

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We should, absolutely. But what you don't recognize quite yet is that already in our divine service, we have prayed some sun stand still prayers.

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We have. And you're sitting there going, all right, I'm game. Prove it, right?

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Well, here's how this works, all right? We're gonna read the account of Joshua chapter 10, the story of the sun standing still.

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And remember, the Old Testament is type in shadow. The fulfillment is in Christ, right?

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So that'll be our basis. So here's the account in Joshua chapter 10. The children of Israel have already begun their conquest of Canaan.

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Jericho has fallen. Ai has fallen. And then the Gibeonites, they put on a ruse.

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They put on like old clothes and moldy things and said that they had come from a long distance and they came to make a covenant with Israel.

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And Israel went for it. They didn't check with God on that. And it turns out the Gibeonites were deceiving them.

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And they actually lived locally. They were in the same zip code as those guys. But they had made a covenant. So the

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Gibeonites had made peace and they weren't consumed. And so we pick up here in Joshua 10, as soon as Adonai Zedek, hmm,

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Adonai Zedek, the righteous Lord, the King of Jerusalem. He heard how Joshua had captured

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Ai and had devoted it to destruction, doing to Ai and to its king as he had done to Jericho and its king and how the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel and they were among them.

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He feared greatly because Gibeon was a great city like one of the royal cities and because it was greater than Ai and all of its men were warriors.

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So Adonai Zedek, the King of Jerusalem, sent to Hoham, the

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King of Hebron, Piram, the King of Jarmuth, Japhia, the King of Lachish, and to Dubir, the

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King of Eglon, saying, come up and help me and let us strike Gibeon for it has made peace with Joshua and with the people of Israel.

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Then the five kings of the Amorites and the King of Jerusalem, the King of Hebron, the King of Jarmuth, the

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King of Lachish, the King of Eglon gathered their forces, went up with all their armies and camped against Gibeon and they made war against it.

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And the men of Gibeon sent to Joshua at the camp in Gilgal saying, do not relax your hand from your servants, come to us quickly, save us, help us, for all the kings of the

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Amorites who dwell in the hill country are gathered against us. So Joshua went up from Gilgal and he and all the people of war with him and all the mighty men of valor and Yahweh said to Joshua, do not fear them for I have given them into your hands, not a man of them shall stand before you.

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Note, he was given a promise, absolute promise, victory belongs to you,

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I'm giving them into your hand. So Joshua came upon them suddenly having marched up all night from Gilgal.

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Yeah, those nighttime marches that lead to a surprise attack in the morning always have a tendency to give you a slight upper hand militarily, right?

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And so Yahweh then threw them into a panic before Israel who struck them with a great blow at Gibeon, chased them by the way of the ascent of Beth Horon and struck them as far as Azekah and Makedah.

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And as they fled before Israel, while they were going down the ascent of Beth Horon, Yahweh threw down large stones from heaven on them as far as Azekah and they died.

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So the Lord himself is now fighting and lobbing stones and crushing these fellows. There were more who died because of the hail stones than the sons of Israel killed with the sword.

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And at that time, Joshua spoke to Yahweh in the day when Yahweh gave the Amorites over to the sons of Israel.

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And he said in the sight of Israel, Son, stand still at Gibeon and moon in the valley of Ajalon.

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The idea here is basically kind of simple. Back then they didn't have the ability to do nighttime attacks and the day was getting far spent.

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And since God had given them the promise that they would have victory that particular day.

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Well, what did Joshua do? He took a look at the situation. It's gonna take another good 12 to 24 hours to finish this battle.

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We don't have enough time. So he just made the reasonable decision that the son just needed to stand still.

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Not a bad thing. If you're thinking about that takes quite a bit of faith. And plus he had a promise from God that they would win that day.

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So the son stood still. The moon stopped until the nation took vengeance on their enemies.

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Can you imagine being on the other side of the world? At 6 a .m. the rooster's going, where's the sun, dude?

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It's a great story. It's a great story. But here's what the text says. Is this not written in the book of Joshua?

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The son stopped in the midst of heaven and did not hurry to set for about a whole day.

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There has been no day like it and listen to what it says. Before or since when Yahweh heeded the voice of a man for Yahweh fought for Israel.

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This is about prayer. This absolutely is about prayer. Yahweh heeded the voice of a man.

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The son stood still. Are you ready for its fulfillment? It's found in the

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New Testament. This is a passage that we had as a gospel text a few months ago. Luke chapter 18.

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As Jesus drew near to Jericho a blind man by the name of Bartimaeus was sitting by the roadside begging and hearing a crowd going by.

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He inquired what this meant and they told him, Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. And so he cried out,

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Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. That's a good prayer, all right.

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Jesus, son of David, have mercy. Eliason, have mercy on me.

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Those who were in front rebuked him telling him to be silent but he cried out all the more.

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Son of David, have mercy on me. And here it is. And Jesus stopped.

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His prayer caused the son to stand still. The son of God.

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That's the point. And I would note this then. His son stand still prayer was quite audacious but it wasn't audacious in the sense of praying for like big things.

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It was really more about him crying out for Christ to have mercy on him.

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So the son of God stopped and he commanded that Bartimaeus be brought to him.

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And when he came near, he asked him, what do you want me to do for you? And he said, Lord, let me recover my sight.

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And Jesus said to him, recover your sight. Your faith has made you well. And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him glorifying

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God and all the people when they saw it, they gave praise to God. You see, that's the fulfillment.

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Of the type and shadow, which then begs this question. Do you believe that your prayers caused the son of God to stop and to hear you?

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Because I would note, God promises that he does. Jesus, your mediator between you and the father, absolutely hears your prayers, hears your calls for mercy.

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In fact, in our gospel text, Jesus says, ask and you will receive.

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But what's really interesting about the Greek there, ask. The verb is in the present active imperative, which basically you can translate it this way.

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Ask, keep on asking, all right? Jesus isn't interested in you just basically asking him like kind of one -off prayers.

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You know, Lord, there's weeds in my garden this year. I'd really like for those things to disappear. I need to be more vigilant in praying that God get rid of my weeds, right?

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But that's kind of the point. In fact, Jesus in Matthew 7 says this. Ask and keep on asking, same idea.

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The present active imperative. Ask, keep on asking, it'll be given to you. Seek, keep on seeking, and you will find.

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Knock and keep on knocking, and it will be opened to you. Everyone who asks receives.

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The one who seeks finds. To the one who knocks, it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?

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Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If then you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, well, how much more will your

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Father who is in heaven give you good things to those who ask? What should we ask him for?

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I don't know, daily bread, the forgiveness of our sins, that we be protected against the schemes of the devil and the temptations of our own flesh, that we be protected, you get the idea.

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What about me if I'm in trouble? What if my life has gone to seed? You should pray to him as well and keep asking, keep on communicating.

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God wants to hear from you. Oh, give thanks to the Lord for he is good,

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Psalm 107 says. His steadfast love endures forever. So let the redeemed of the

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Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble. He is gathered in from the lands, from the east, from the west, from the north, from the south.

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Some, they wandered in desert waste, finding no way to a city to dwell in. They were hungry, they were thirsty, their souls fainted within them.

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Then they cried to Yahweh in their trouble and he delivered them from their distress. The whole point is that our prayers do stop

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Christ. He hears us, he listens to us. We can cry out to him in times of distress and need.

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We can even cry out to him in times of plenty and give thanks for the good things that he has given to us.

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Is that not what Paul was telling us in our epistle text? But maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. He led them by a straightway till they reached a city to dwell him.

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So let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man, for he satisfies the longing soul and the hungry soul he fills with good things.

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Psalm 119 says it this way, starting at verse 145. With my whole heart

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I cry, answer me, O Yahweh, and I will keep your statutes.

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I call to you, save me, so that I may observe your testimonies. I rise before dawn and I cry for help,

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I hope in your words. My eyes are awake before the watches of the night that I may meditate on your promise.

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Hear my voice according to your steadfast love, O Yahweh, and according to your justice, give me life.

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Now, I'm gonna point something out here. You have to take a little bit of a longer view.

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But isn't it true that each and every one of us, we loathe the idea of dying? I mean, I really don't like the idea.

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I mean, it's just not that great of a thing. And so when we're sick, we ask God to heal us.

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When we are suffering from a chronic illness, we ask God to heal us. And we pray, Lord, give us life.

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Have you ever stopped to think that those of us who are in Christ Jesus, every single one of those prayers gets answered in the affirmative?

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And when you cry out to God in the midst of your troubles to give you relief from your suffering, have you not considered that every single one of those prayers is answered with a yes?

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You sit there and go, well, how do you figure? It's real simple. Even if you die, you will live.

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There is a day coming when Christ, when he returns, he's forming, creating a new heavens and a new earth.

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And in the new earth, there is no pain. There is no suffering. There is no death. There is no disease.

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And there are no weeds, right? It says so in the book. Just I can prove it to you if you need me to do it, right?

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But that being the case, because we are in Christ, we will be there. There will be a time when all of this passes away.

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All of our trouble, all of our suffering, all of our pain and our grief. And we will awaken in the new earth when

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Christ calls us from the grave to life everlasting, a time when all evil purposes come to a stop.

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All of our suffering comes to an end. So God, here's our prayers.

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And every one of those prayers for relief, for the end of trouble, for the end of suffering, for the end of persecution, even vindication in the face of persecution,

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Christ hears those prayers and he's going to answer all of them with a big yes at the end of the age.

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All because Christ has bled and died for our sins so that we do not get what we deserve. You'll note that our sin separates us from God, but Christ has reunited us with the

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Father by his reconciling death on the cross. And so God hears our prayers and he hears our pleas for mercy.

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And we can even cry out to him like those around the throne of heaven, how long, oh

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Lord? And what's the answer given to those who cry such a prayer?

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Just a little while longer, just a little while longer, and he will act. So they who draw near, who persecute me with evil purpose, they are far from your law, but you are near to me, oh

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Yahweh, and all your commandments are true. Long have I known from your testimonies that you have founded them forever.

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And here's where I think we can consider another aspect. We'll go back to the military metaphor here.

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It's really popular to talk in our days about spiritual warfare, right? And you have people out there with YouTube channels talking about all the great things that you can do in spiritual warfare.

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And they really kind of sound like a bunch of wingnuts, right? You know, they're decreeing and declaring and tearing down strongholds and casting demons out of heaven and stuff like this.

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And I always, when I hear somebody do this, I sit there and go, have you even read Ephesians 6?

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As we read this account of the armor of God, this very famous passage, pay close attention to the role that prayer takes in spiritual warfare, right?

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Here's what it says. Ephesians 6, finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.

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I could do a whole sermon on that. You know, if you think you're gonna get through this life and you're gonna live the Christian life on your strength, oofta, right?

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That ain't gonna work. It's just, it's not gonna work. If you think about the themes that we've been working through the past few

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Sundays. Two Sundays ago, we talked about suffering because Christ has promised us there's gonna be sorrow now, but joy when he returns.

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And he's preparing us for the difficulty of this life. Last week, he promised us the gift of the Holy Spirit, the helper who gives us strength to endure, right?

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Who gives us the strength to mortify our sinful flesh. And now here, Christ is outfitting us with prayer.

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And you'll note that in this context then, we don't do the Christian life in our own strength.

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The person who tries to live the Christian life in their own strength is called a casualty. It's just not possible.

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And why would you do it anyway? If you think about it, the business world works out the concept of, I would like to start a business with other people's money, all right?

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This is how the world operates, right? You've seen that program called Shark Tank, right? All these new gizmos and gadgets and these entrepreneurs coming up and pitching their product, trying to get other people's money to back their business.

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And it's always a big win when, oh yeah, we're gonna invest $100 ,000. We expect this kind of percentage.

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It's a big win for them when other people's money is invested into the business. I would note, when it comes to the

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Christian life, you have God's strength at your disposal. Why on earth would you try to live it in your own might?

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It makes no sense. So be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.

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And now put on the whole armor of God so that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

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You mean the devil scheming against us? Yes, the devil hates you and he has a terrible plan for your life. That's how that works, all right?

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We don't wrestle against flesh and blood. We wrestle against the rulers, against the authorities, plural, against the cosmic powers, plural, of this present darkness and against the spiritual forces, plural, of evil in the heavenly places.

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It sounds kind of dire if you think about it, right? This is a good fight.

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We're not gonna survive this one. All right, therefore, because this is the case, we're all already at war.

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We're called the church militant now. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God so that you may be able to withstand in the evil day having done all to stand firm.

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Note here, there's nothing said about taking territory. Again, I've preached on this before, but I'll kind of emphasize this.

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We're called to armor up and stand. You know, it's a little easier if we're on the move, right?

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Standing, really standing? That means we're just kind of open to all kinds of attacks.

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But again, we're fighting with Christ's might, not our own. So we're called to stand.

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And then he says, stand, therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth. Boy, that's a concept that's kind of disappeared today.

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Truth, right? The belt of truth. Keeps your pants up if you think about it. And I guess that makes sense since we say liar, liar, pants on fire, you know?

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So, you know, lies seem to strip you of your pants. So the belt of truth keeps your pants up.

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Very good, all right. And let's see here. A belt of truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness.

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This is the righteousness of Christ. And you'll note it protects us from taking a gut shot from the enemy, which would be mortal.

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And the shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. We're fleet -footed when it comes to sharing the forgiveness of sins.

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Love the picture. And then in all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one.

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Never could figure out why a shield would put out flaming darts until I did a little bit more research.

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Turns out in Roman army kit, okay? If you think in centurions, we've all seen their shields, right?

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Those little round things. Well, the Roman army used to put big amount of, well, leather on the outside of those shields.

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And then before a battle, they would soak their shields, all right? So when the flaming arrows of the enemy come in and hit their shield, the moisture stuck in the leather would help extinguish the darts.

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It's a little baptismal reference if you think about it, right? You know, I just had to get a plug in for baptism.

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Right? So, let's see. All circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one.

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Take up the helmet of salvation, the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. That's our only offensive weapon.

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I suggest learning how to wield that thing. That means listening to it, reading it, marking it, inwardly digesting it, right?

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And then here it comes, all right? Now that we're all kitted out, got the whole armor of God, and we're standing, and in come the flaming arrows of the enemy of all the forces of darkness in this present age.

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And here's what we're supposed to do. Pray at all times with all power and supplications.

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It makes sense if you think about it. It's like, okay, you know, think of, you think of the grunt, the guy who's never actually been to war, you know, that soldier who's never seen battle yet.

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Always and again, like the worst thing ever is that first battle because, you know, you're going to either end up dead or you're going to quickly become a hardened veteran.

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So you can just see this guy straight out of bootcamp. Well, what am I supposed to do? All right, well, we're going to put all your armor on.

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All right, got it all on. What do I do now? We want you to stand here. Okay, now what?

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Well, you see that guy over there and those forces of evil? Yeah, here come the flaming darts. What's that guy going to do?

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Ah! Right? Put the shield up. And what do all guys in the military do when they're under fire?

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They get on the horn. Help, we're taking fire here. We need help, we need help, help. Send in, send in recruits, send in, ah!

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Right, this is what you're supposed to do. All right, it's a good picture. I like it. Spiritual warfare sounds really terrifying.

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And what are we supposed to do while standing, while all these arrows are coming in? Get on the horn and start praying, right?

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We need an A -10 warthog right now, God. Yeah, right? Have you seen those things in action, right?

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That's the idea. Pray, pray at all times with prayer and supplications. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, continuing to make supplication for all the saints.

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Who should we pray for? Pray for ourselves, pray for the other people, we're all in this predicament together.

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It sounds scary if you think about it. Nothing here about decreeing, declaring, commanding, and controlling or tearing down strongholds.

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It's all about praying, right? And also he says, pray for me so that words may be given to me and opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel for which

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I am an ambassador in chains. Is it any wonder then that our epistle text says this? Paul says,

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I urge that supplications and prayers, intercessions and thanksgiving be made for all people.

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This is what the church militant does. This is what spiritual warfare is all about, praying.

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We pray for kings in a hall who are in high positions. Have you noticed that God seems to have, well, come back onto the political scene a little lately?

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Have you noticed that? I mean, all of a sudden, out of nowhere, Roe v. Wade is about ready to be overturned.

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That's amazing. That's a miracle. Oh, and I love the fact that Nancy Pelosi has been forbidden to receive the

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Lord's Supper. Praise God, right? This is the answers to many a person's prayer, your prayers and mine.

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God hears our prayers. So we pray then for those who are in high positions so that we may lead peaceful and quiet lives, godly and dignified in every way.

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This is good. It is pleasing in the sight of God, our Savior. And listen to these words, who desires all people to be saved.

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Now, don't let the Calvinists know this, but all here means all. Okay, I just wanna make that clear. It doesn't mean some, it doesn't mean the elect, it means all, okay?

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I looked it up in the Greek, panta, all. It means all. God desires that all people be saved.

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And here's where we should pay attention. If you pray anything according to the will of Christ, He hears you.

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God wills for your salvation. He wills for the salvation of your neighbors. He wills for the salvation of your coworkers and your friends.

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Pray for them. Pray for them. He wills that you be sanctified.

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This is the will of God that you be sanctified. Pray that God, the Holy Spirit, would continue to give you the strength that He would sanctify you, that He would convict you of your sin, that He would drive out of you the desires to pursue sin and give you new desires to obey

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Him and to serve others, right? All of this because we are saved.

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Hear the will then of God when we pray for our sanctification, when we pray for our salvation, when we pray for the salvation of others.

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God hears us. When we pray for our political leaders, God hears us.

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Yes, we can even pray for Joe. He needs a lot of prayer if you haven't noticed. And here's the reason.

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There is one God. There is one mediator between God and man, and that's Christ Jesus. And He is the one who gave

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Himself as a ransom. You see, we were all under the dominion of darkness, held in bondage against our will, deceived into sin itself with no hope.

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But Christ shows up and He gives the ransom for your sins and mine, which is His own precious blood.

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And there is no way to begin to measure the worth of the blood of Christ.

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You see, God so loved you, He loved me, He loved all of us, that He gave

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His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. And this means that He doesn't just care about you now believing in Him.

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He's giving you everything you need to get through this life and on into the next.

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Repent of your, well, kind of weak, tepid, distracted prayers.

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Repent of all of the ways in which you think the prayer doesn't do anything, like it doesn't really matter.

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It does. It is a great gift given to us by Christ. And it is for us who have been reconciled to God.

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James says, the prayers of a righteous man avails much and you are clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

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We have been duped by the devil, distracted by, well, the fiery darts of the evil one.

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We've exchanged this great gift of prayer for silence. And as a result of it, many times it could be said of us, we don't have because we do not ask.

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So let us with confidence then, boldness, draw into the throne of grace so that God can hear us.

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We can lay out our pleas of mercy to Him. He hears us. He stops. He acts.

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He promises that He will answer yes to our prayers and relieve us from all of our troubles.

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This is most certainly true, all because of our crucified and risen Savior. And I would note,

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Christ Himself modeled this type of prayer. And even willingly, despite praying multiple times to the

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Father that the cup would pass from Him, He willingly yielded His life to the

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Father's will that He could bleed and die for our sins so that we can be saved. It's a lot to think about.

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Much to consider. Much to repent of. Prayer isn't nothing.