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Happy Sunday. Good morning.
I'm Tonya and I'm part of the Oikos in the Oaks and Women Reading Women monthly book club groups.
Today's scripture reading is from the book of Genesis chapter 18 verses 16 to 33 as printed in your liturgy.
A reading from the book of Genesis.
When the men got up to leave, they looked down towards Sodom and Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way.
Then the Lord said, shall I hide from Abraham what I'm about to do?
Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation and all nations on earth will be blessed through him.
For I have chosen him so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just.
So that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.
So then the Lord said, the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sins so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me.
If not, I will know.
The men turned away and went towards Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord.
Then Abraham approached him and said, will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?
What if there are 50 righteous people in this city?
Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the 50 righteous people in it?
Far be it from you to do such a thing, to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike.
Far be it from you.
Will not the judge of all the earth do right?
The Lord said, if I find 50 righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.
Then Abraham spoke up again.
Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, what if the number of the righteous is five less than 50?
Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five people?
If I find 45 there, he said, I will not destroy it.
Once again, he spoke to him.
What if only 40 are found there?
He said, for the sake of 40, I will not do it.
Then he said, may the Lord not be angry, but let me speak.
What if only 30 can be found there?
He answered, I will not do it if I find 30 there.
Abraham said, now that I've been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only 20 can be found there?
He said, for the sake of 20, I will not destroy it.
Then he said, may the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more.
What if only 10 can be found there?
He answered, for the sake of 10, I will not destroy it.
When the Lord had finished speaking with Abraham, he left and Abraham returned home.
The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever.
Good morning, Christ Church.
We're about halfway through this sermon series in Genesis, and so I thought it'd be fitting after today's service to offer a Q&A on this sermon,
on the book of Genesis, on the Bible, on really any question you would like to ask.
We'll gather up for a Q&A after this service.
But last Sunday, we were looking at the same chapter, Genesis 18.
The Lord came, and he said, where's Sarah?
And Sarah laughed, and God transformed her laugh.
So this is picking right up where we left off.
In verse 17, the Lord says, shall I hide from Abraham what I'm about to do?
And that's basically like saying, I probably shouldn't be telling you this, but.
Right?
It's tipping your hand.
It's revealing your intentions.
It's letting the cat out of the bag.
The Lord clearly does not want to hide from Abraham what he's about to do.
Why?
Because he's chosen Abraham to be his covenant partner.
And we kind of see that in verse 17.
Shall I hide from Abraham what I'm about to do?
Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed
through him, for I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household
after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will
bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.
In other words, if Abraham and if all the people of Abraham are going to be a community, are going
to be a nation through whom the blessing of God goes out to all the nations of the earth,
if they're going to be a people who keep the way of the Lord, a people who do what is right
and what is just, a people who are righteous and who are just, then they must necessarily be involved
with God.
They must be participating with God in his work in the world.
And this means that Abraham and the people of Abraham need to learn to be a people of prayer.
They've got to learn how to pray.
Shall I hide from Abraham what I'm about to do?
That's an invitation to pray.
And it actually leads to the first full prayer with petitions recorded in the Bible, one of
the greatest prayers in all of the scriptures.
And what we learn here right off the bat is that prayer is not our idea, it's God's idea.
And prayer is never, it never comes at our initiation, it comes at God's initiation.
If you ever sense that you should pray, it's because God is prompting you to pray.
Prayer is answering God.
Prayer is responding to God's word, responding to God's spirit.
And the God that we meet here in the story is a living God.
He's a real God who speaks and who invites us into his presence and who prompts us to pray
and who listens to us and wants a personal relationship with us.
And prayer is the conversation that keeps the relationship alive, right?
Just like any other relationship we have, we have to talk to that person.
And so there's lots of different kinds of prayer in the Bible, but we're going to ask three
questions today.
What is intercessory prayer?
What fuels this kind of praying?
And how can we contend for our city?
What is intercessory prayer?
What fuels this kind of praying?
And how can we contend for our city?
If you look at verse 20, then the Lord said, the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so
great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as
bad as the outcry that has reached me.
If not, I will know.
And then the men turned away and went towards Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before
the Lord.
Then Abraham approached him and said, will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?
So we've heard already in verse 19, Abraham is called to form this family.
He's called to form a whole nation, in fact, that will keep the way of the Lord and will
do what is right and what is just.
But what do those words actually mean?
And what do they have to do with this outcry that's coming up to the Lord?
Well, the Hebrew word, tzedekah, which means righteousness, it's about the day-to-day living
of a person who conducts all of their relationships in their family and in society with fairness and
generosity and equity.
And a righteous person is someone who will disadvantage themselves in order to advantage
the community.
And a wicked person is someone who does the opposite.
A wicked person is someone who will disadvantage the community in order to advantage themselves.
That's tzedekah, that's righteousness.
And the Hebrew word mishpat, which means justice, is all about giving people what they are due.
If someone is due punishment or if someone is due protection, you give them what they're
due.
And over and over in the scriptures, mishpat describes taking up the care and the cause of
four different kinds of people, widows, orphans, immigrants, and the poor.
And we describe these as the quartet of the vulnerable.
These are people who have no economic power, no social power.
They're so easily neglected and ignored, so easily exploited and harmed.
And so when the Lord says in verse 20, a great outcry about grievous sins has come up to me,
it's all about tzedekah and mishpat.
It's all about these cities who have become so corrupt, so vicious, so cruel, so violent,
that victims of unrighteousness, victims of injustice are crying out to the Lord for righteousness
and justice.
You guys with me so far?
Okay.
So the prophet Ezekiel, interestingly, in Ezekiel 16, the prophet says,
the sin of Sodom is that she is arrogant, overfed, and unconcerned.
She does not help the poor and the needy.
And God doesn't stand aloof to that.
He stands in judgment on that.
And you might say, well, I don't believe in a God of judgment.
I believe in a God of mercy, right?
But if you have a God who hears the cries of people who are oppressed, who are being
absolutely crushed, and he never actually judges their oppressors, is that actually a
God of mercy?
So what you have here is both a just and a merciful God who hears this outcry, and he
asks Abraham to intervene.
Shall I hide from Abraham what I'm about to do?
No, I'm not going to hide it.
And Abraham knows that, and Abraham turns in verse 23, and it says, Abraham approached
him and said, will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?
And this term, approached, it's a legal word.
It means to approach the bench, to approach the judge, right?
It's like a courtroom where Abraham's been invited to become the legal representative of
this pagan city before Almighty God.
And he goes to the bench, and he begins to intervene.
He begins to argue a case.
He begins to contend for the future of this city.
And what's surprising as he's making his case is that if you know anything about the story,
Abraham's nephew, Lot, and his whole family is in this city, but he doesn't mention them
at all.
And Gordon Wynnum is a great Old Testament scholar.
In his commentary, he says this.
He says, this text, Genesis 18, has all kind of links with the great intercessions of Moses
and of Samuel and of Amos and of Jeremiah, who all pleaded to God on the nation's behalf.
They pleaded on Israel's behalf.
But he says here, Abraham is, he's not praying for his own people, he's praying for Sodom.
And that, Gordon Wynnum says, that makes this episode unique among prophetic intercessions.
Because Abraham's not praying for his own needs.
He's not praying for his grocery list of, I need this and I want that, give me this,
give me that.
Nor is he praying for his own family or his own people, his own tribe, people who believe
like him, look like him, share the same race, the same God.
No.
It says that he's praying for Canaanite pagans.
He's praying for the whole city.
He's praying for people who, even at this moment, are doing wicked things.
And he's just laying himself out before God for their good.
So this is a prayer that's remarkably unselfish, remarkably outwardly facing, broad, inclusive,
universal.
Because Abraham knows that he's been blessed to be a blessing, right?
Back in Genesis 12.
And that's repeated here in verse 18.
All the nations of the earth will be blessed through him.
And one of the primary ways that Abraham understands how this blessing is going to go through him
out to all the peoples is through prayer.
Through intercessory prayer.
And so at first glance, as Abraham begins to talk to God, and is talking God down from
50 to 45 to 40 to 30 to 20 to 10, it sounds like we're listening to two Middle Eastern people
in a marketplace haggling over the price of melons.
Right?
But it's actually profoundly deeper than that.
There's something profoundly theological going on here where it says in verse 23,
Abraham approached the bench and he said,
Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?
What if there are 50 righteous people in the city?
Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the 50 righteous people in it?
Far be it from you to do such a thing, to kill the righteous and the wicked,
treating the righteous and the wicked alike.
Far be it from you.
Will not the judge of all the earth do right?
See, Abraham's approaching the bench like a lawyer, like a defense attorney.
And a good defense attorney will not come to the judge and say,
Your Honor, my client is guilty of breaking this law, but don't you think this is kind of a stupid law?
Or, hey, Your Honor, can't you just for today forget everything you learned in law school?
And just for a moment, like kind of be a little flexible on the standard of the law,
and just have a heart and give my client a break?
If that's your defense attorney, you need a new defense attorney,
because you're not going to win in court.
See, Abraham knows how to win in court.
He goes back to Genesis 1-2, and he says,
God, the facts are, You're the creator.
You are the moral standard maker of the universe.
You are the righteous and the just lawgiver.
And so I'm not asking you to be something you're not.
I'm not asking you to do something other than what you do.
But Abraham also goes back to Genesis 3 and Genesis 6 and Genesis 13,
and he says, You're not just a law-giving and a just God who demands righteousness and justice,
but you're also a compassionate God, and you're a gracious God.
You spared Adam and Eve, and you spared Noah and his family,
and you spared me and my family.
You called me out of pagan idolatry to become your person,
to be a blessing to all the peoples of the earth.
So I know he's calling on the nature of God and the very attributes of God
and saying, God, I know who you revealed yourself to be.
And so the question that I'm asking you, God,
is what if there are both righteous and wicked people in this city?
You wouldn't sweep the righteous away with the wicked, would you?
Because that wouldn't be right.
Wouldn't you rather spare this whole city?
Wouldn't you rather just forgive and save this entire city,
including the wicked, for the sake of the righteous?
He's saying, Look, God, I'm not asking you for the salvation of people
in spite of your demands for righteousness,
but rather what I'm asking is this.
Will you forgive the unrighteous many for the sake of the righteous few?
And could you value the righteousness of the few so much
that it covers the wickedness of the many?
God, could you please spare, could you please forgive this whole city
for a righteous remnant that might be inside of it?
Because I know that the wicked have failed your moral law.
I know they have a guilty record,
but is it possible that the righteousness of someone else
could cover them and could save them?
You see, we all live in a culture of radical individualism,
so this makes no sense at all.
But for Abraham, he's an ancient person,
and so he's pressing God for corporate solidarity
and a sense of organic connectionalism.
He's pushing God in this direction of collective responsibility.
He says, We all know it's true that if one person royally screws up,
royally sins,
then another person or another whole group of people
are going to be negatively affected by that, right?
And Abraham says,
But what if that principle works in the opposite direction?
Is it possible that the righteousness of others
could positively impact another person
or another group of people?
He says, God,
is your treatment of the human community
going to be based on the wicked record of the many,
or could it be based on the righteous record of the few?
And at an even deeper level in this prayer,
Abraham is saying,
God, is it possible that your merciful will to save
could become greater than your just will to punish?
And is it possible for your divine justice
for the sake of the wicked
to be somehow subsumed under your divine mercy
for the sake of the righteous?
How do we apply this kind of praying to our lives?
Well, I hope you can see so far
that prayer is about more than just shooting up flares
and saying, is there anybody up there?
It's way more than just writing down
little messages in a bottle,
sending them out,
hoping somebody will read these one day.
No, prayer is about crying out to the living God,
this God who's revealed himself in the Bible,
calling on, grabbing hold of his nature
and his attributes
and all of his promises and his will
and saying, God, I'm not going to let you go.
Prayer is about standing in the gap
between the creator and his creatures.
It's about standing in that place
between the living God
and the cities in which we inhabit
and on the basis of who God says he is,
engaging him in a conversation
that's both broad and deep,
that's both universal and theological.
If we're going to be mature Christians,
if we're going to be a healthy church,
we've got to learn how to pray like Abraham,
which means that we've got to get around people
who have learned how to pray this way
and we've got to get ourselves into resources
that can teach us how to pray this way
and that's why we're going to keep going in this passage
because this is the first resource.
So what is intercessory prayer?
Second question is,
what fuels this kind of praying?
It's interesting that
when Abraham approaches the bench,
he just begins kind of
launching all kind of questions at God, right?
And he even gets to the point,
he says, God, will you really?
Will you really?
Far be it from you, God.
God.
It's kind of an intimate
and also intense form
of communication with Almighty God,
is it not?
If you look at the Psalms,
the prayer book of the Bible,
you see the exact same kind of thing.
Abraham has this incredibly bold faith
where he just,
he approaches the bench
like he deserves to be there
and he moves right into the presence
of the judge of all the earth
with a kind of accessibility
and a kind of familiarity
and he just begins to argue,
argue his case.
And how does the Lord respond to that?
Is the Lord displeased with that?
Well, verse 26 says,
the Lord said,
if I find 50 righteous people
in the city of Sodom,
like you've asked,
I will spare the whole place
for their sake.
And then Abraham spoke up again
and he said,
now that I've been so bold
as to speak to the Lord,
though I'm nothing but dust and ashes,
what if the number of the righteous
is five less than 50,
will you destroy the whole city
for lack of five people?
If I find 45 there,
he said,
I will not destroy it.
See, Abraham knows
that he's asking boldly,
right,
he's got chutzpah,
as they say.
He knows that.
But at the same time,
he also says,
I'm nothing but dust and ashes,
which is a profound statement
of humility and deference
that, again,
is rooted in divine revelation.
He's going back to Genesis 2.
We're nothing but,
we're made from the dust,
right?
Genesis 3,
we're fallen sinners
who deserve nothing but death and ashes.
And most people struggle
to hold these two things together
at the same time,
right?
Conservative people tend to say,
you know,
God is a personal God
and he's this imminent God
and so we're looking for
a sense of the presence of God.
We want to draw near to God.
We want to experience
intimacy with God.
We want to approach him.
We want to talk to him.
But we don't really want to go after God
in prayer.
We don't want to be too assertive.
We don't want to be aggressive
like Abraham is in this prayer
because that's not appropriate
if God is absolute
and God is transcendent.
It's not respectful enough.
It's not formal enough.
Who could go to God like that?
But on the other hand,
liberal-minded people
who really have a passion
for causes of collective righteousness,
causes of corporate justice,
they might want to talk to people
about these things.
Maybe occasionally they'll talk to God
about these things.
But they certainly won't admit
that before the cosmic majesty of God,
I'm really nothing but dust and ashes.
I really don't even deserve
to be here right now.
I don't deserve to ask for anything.
I'm just weak and unworthy
and undeserving.
I'm totally helpless,
totally hopeless.
And you see,
neither group,
neither Christian here
or Christian there,
church here or Christian,
neither of them are as bold
and as humble as Abraham is.
Abraham shows us
how to approach the bench,
how to come to the throne of God,
the presence of God,
with a kind of confidence
and a boldness
that's also counterbalanced
by deference and humility.
And it's clear
that the Lord is pleased
with this kind of praying.
He's pleased
with this kind of attitude
and this kind of approach
because to Abraham's astonishment
over and over again,
the Lord continues to say yes.
And Abraham,
if you notice,
Abraham is the kind of person
who refuses to take yes
for an answer.
Six times the Lord says yes
and six times Abraham
with humble boldness
and bold humility says,
no, I want more.
I want more.
He's pressing the Lord
as far as the Lord
can be pressed to go.
And he gets him all the way
from 50 to 45, 40, 30, 20, 10,
all the way to 10.
And then the conversation
just stops right there.
Why?
Why is that?
Because clearly Abraham
would keep going.
Right?
Abraham would go
all the way down to one.
But it says in verse 33,
the Lord finished speaking with him
and so Abraham just went home.
The Lord stops Abraham short
because he knows
there's actually not
one righteous person
in that city.
Abraham's nephew Lot
is there,
but he's an immigrant.
He's not a citizen of the city.
And if you know anything
about his story,
he's relatively righteous.
Right?
His record,
like ours,
is pretty spotty.
And so the Lord
just stops Abraham short
and says,
there's not even one
righteous person
in that city.
And you see,
Abraham is a prophet.
Abraham is a priest.
And he's doing
what prophets and priests do.
He's interceding
for the city.
But the thing about Abraham
is the only thing
he can really do
is argue this case,
but he's not able
to execute the case.
He's not able
to close the case.
And so what we need
is a true prophet.
What we need
is a high priest
who's not able
just to argue the case,
but is able
to execute the case.
And that's why
we have the New Testament.
Right?
The book of Hebrews
chapter 7,
verse 24 says,
because Jesus lives forever,
he has a permanent priesthood.
And therefore,
he's able to save completely
those who come to God
through him
because he always lives
to intercede for them.
Such a high priest
truly meets our need,
one who is holy,
blameless,
pure,
set apart from sinners,
exalted above the heavens.
He does not need
to offer sacrifices
for his own sins.
He sacrificed
for the sins
of the people
once for all
when he offered himself.
What in the world
does that mean?
Well,
you see,
Abraham,
he's praying
for Canaanites
who are hostile to him.
If you go back
and you look
at Genesis chapter 14,
Abraham's having
to keep
these pagan Canaanites
off with swords.
They're trying
to attack him.
They could hurt him.
But he's praying
for them anyway.
And yet,
Jesus,
the true prophet,
the true high priest,
prayed for people
who are actually
in the act
of killing him.
Right on the cross,
what did Jesus pray?
He prayed,
Father,
forgive them
for they don't know
what they're doing.
Jesus is giving
his life
for the people
he's praying for.
Jesus
is not only
able to argue
our case,
but he's able
to execute
our case.
Because even though
he didn't have to come,
he came anyway.
And he lived
the righteous life
that every one of us
was supposed to live.
And even though
he was absolutely
innocent,
he died the death
of a criminal.
He died a just death
in our place,
the death that we
deserve to die.
And the night
before he went
to his cross,
he prayed,
in this great
high priestly prayer
in the Gospel
of John,
chapter 17.
He said,
Father,
I want you
to love them
as you love me.
In other words,
I want you
to treat them
like you treat me,
as if they were me.
And what happens
there at the cross
is that our legal
representative
stands before the bench
of divine justice
and he says,
I'm going to do it,
Father.
I'm going to love you
with all my heart,
soul,
mind,
and strength
right now.
I'm going to love
my neighbor
as myself.
I'm going to die
as the one
righteous person
who's ever lived
on planet earth.
And so the question
that rings out
from this text
through the rest
of the scriptures,
will the Lord
save the many wicked
for the sake
of the one righteous?
The answer is yes.
When you have
the right person,
yes.
and so friends,
when you enter
into solidarity
with Jesus,
what happens
is that your
unrighteousness
becomes his
and his righteousness
becomes yours.
And that's what
the apostle Paul says
in 2 Corinthians
chapter 5
verse 21.
It says,
God made him
who had no sin
to be sin for us
so that in him
we might become
the righteousness
of God.
So again,
how do we apply
this to our lives?
Well,
yeah,
how do we
pray like this?
First of all,
we need to see
that we have
even more reason
than Abraham
had to be humble
before the majesty
of Almighty God
because we
are so flawed.
We are so sinful.
We are so
much more wicked
than we want
to admit
to ourselves
that the eternal
Son of God
had to come
and die
in our place
on the cross
to save us.
And so that means
that when we come
to God,
we say that much
more than Abraham,
I'm nothing
but dust and ashes.
I know what it took
for me to be saved.
I'm nothing
but dust and ashes.
And yet,
secondly,
we need to see
that we have
even more reason
than Abraham did
to be bold
before God's throne
of grace
because we're
so loved.
We're so accepted
that Jesus was
glad to die for us.
He cares for us
at infinite cost
to himself.
So we don't just
come with humility,
we come with boldness
and we come
and we say,
this is where
you made it possible
for me to be
and I'm not going
to take yes
for an answer
because I'm here.
I'm here because
you shed your blood
for me to be here.
And the third thing
we need to see
is that we have
a true and a better
Abraham
as our high priest
who's sitting
enthroned right now
as we've said already
from Hebrews 7.25,
he's always living
to intercede for us.
And that means
that we have
a friend in high places.
Right?
We have a friend
in the highest place,
the control room
of the universe.
He was raised
from the dead
and he was exalted
to the right hand
of the Father
and given all authority
in heaven
and on earth
and that person
is our friend.
That person
is advocating
for us
with an infallible case,
an executed case,
a closed case.
And that's what gives us
the kind of power
to pray this way.
Hebrews, again,
Hebrews chapter 4 says,
therefore since we have
a great high priest
who has ascended
into heaven,
Jesus the Son of God,
we do not have
a high priest
who's unable
to empathize
with our weaknesses,
but we have one
who's been tempted
in every way
just as we are,
yet he did not sin.
Let us, therefore,
approach God's throne
of grace with confidence
so that we may receive mercy
and find grace
to help us
in our time of need.
If we grab hold of this,
this is the thing,
this is the fuel,
this is the power
that will change
your prayer life
from being non-existent
or overly formal
or overly vague
or just absolutely boring.
into a real
and living
and intimate
and passionate
and adventurous
and indeed risky
act of faith.
And this is what God
wants from his people.
It's very clear.
He says,
Abraham,
it's what I want you to be.
It's what I want
all of your children to be,
to learn to pray like this.
So what is intercessory prayer?
What fuels such praying?
Last question,
it's very short.
How can we do this
for our city?
How can we contend
for our city?
One of the commentators
I read,
his name's Nahum Sarna.
He wrote the commentaries
for the Jewish Publication Society
on Genesis and Exodus.
And he said this,
he said,
until now,
Abraham has spoken
with God three times.
On each occasion,
his personal welfare
has been the sole subject
of discourse.
Now a change takes place.
This dialogue with God
involves a concern
for the welfare of others,
total strangers.
Abraham displays
an awareness of suffering
and an ability to respond
beyond his immediate
personal interests.
And Sarna goes on,
he says,
his compassionate behavior
at this moment
makes him the paradigm
of the just and the right.
Qualities that are to characterize
all of his descendants.
Abraham now stands before God
to plead for the lives
of depraved pagans.
He senses kinship
with the people of Sodom
and feels himself involved
in their fate.
What if we felt the way
Abraham felt?
What if we sensed a kinship
for the suffering of our city?
What if we felt ourselves
to be involved
not just in our own
personal interests
but in the welfare
and the fate of our city?
The New Testament says
that every single Christian believer
is like Abraham.
Right?
1 Peter 2.9 says
that the community of Jesus
is to be a royal priesthood.
And Revelation 1 verse 6
says that Jesus made us
to be a kingdom of priests
to serve his God and Father.
What does that mean?
What does it mean
to be a kingdom of priests?
A royal priesthood
that is contending
for the spiritual,
social,
and cultural renewal
and well-being
and flourishing
of our city?
What would it mean
if we began to turn to God
in this kind of prayer
more than we currently do?
What would it mean
if we called
on the name of the Lord
with this kind of boldness
and this kind of humility?
If we said,
God,
we're nothing but dust and ashes
and yet,
God,
we're here
at this throne of grace.
We don't want to take yes
for an answer.
What if we were to call out
to God and say,
God,
give us a hunger
and a thirst
for righteousness
and justice.
And what if we contended
for God
not only for our own needs,
our own spiritual life,
but what if we contended
to God
for the lives of others,
for the next generation,
for the whole of our city
that doesn't know God?
What if we took more ownership
like Abraham took ownership
over a city
he didn't even belong to?
What if we began
to identify
with the problems
of our city?
What if we began
to repent
on its behalf?
What if we operated
with a holy burden
that broken people
in our city
would be mended?
What if we cried out
to God
that people
who don't know him
would come to know him
and be saved
by the one righteous person
God has provided?
And what if we prayed
that all
who've been rescued
by Jesus
would live out
the righteousness
and the justice
of Jesus
in sanctified lives,
holy lives
that are fully conformed
to his self-giving love?
You know,
there's many steps
we could take
in prayer
but the one
I'll just mention
as we close
is that we
we didn't plan this
six months ago
but we
we just put on the calendar
that Wednesday
this Wednesday
we wanted
the church
to commit itself
to a day of prayer
and fasting.
Didn't know what text
we were preaching today
we just put it on the calendar
and you're gonna hear
about it in a moment
we're just calling you
to carve out
an hour of your day
we're giving you
a prayer guide
you can pray on your own
you can pray
with other people
you can pray at home
at work
you can pray here
we try to eliminate
every barrier
for you to say
no I cannot pray
and we would just
simply ask
I just wanna ask
as we close
this sermon
will you pray?
Will you pray
like Abraham?
Abraham
the Lord said
he'll preserve the city
if there are 50
righteous people in it
he'll even preserve the city
if there's 10
righteous people in it
and so what if we
were a little prophetic
community
a little priestly community
that was so filled
with love for God
love for neighbor
that we wanted to
go to God
in bold humility
and intercede
for the flourishing
of others
for the flourishing
of our city
this would please God
I think
very very much
John Newton
who wrote
Amazing Grace
he also wrote a hymn
he says this
thou art coming
to a king
large petitions
with thee bring
for his grace
and power
are such
none
can ever ask
too much
in the name
of the Father
Son
and Holy Spirit
Amen
I want to invite you
just to take a moment
of quiet
as we prepare
to come to this table
Thank you.