83a) Pastoral Intercessory Prayer #2

The point: The older you get, the bigger your basket of theological problems regarding prayer will become, but you must never allow those problems to erode childlike confidence in the explicit promises of Scripture.

Martin dismisses the pagan concept of prayer as forcing God to 'cry uncle' by wrestling him into submission -- a vivid analogy for manipulative prayer that treats the Almighty as an opponent to be overpowered into erasing his own eternal decree.

Confident behind all of this, God is taking care of His affairs. And we don't view prayer as getting God in a hammerlock, that He will go back and erase some things in the book of His own eternal decree because we pushed Him hard enough and we got Him to cry uncle.

10:59 - 11:15 Read in full sermon

The point: Load your conscience with 1 Samuel 12:23 so that failures in intercessory prayer are felt as sin requiring repentance and forgiveness at the same fountain as failures in preaching and pastoral oversight.

Martin parodies the carnal Christian doctrine using the image of gaining more 'yo-yos in the bag' at the last day by living well, but arriving in heaven third-class regardless -- applied to the equally flawed view that treats prayer as optional and merely commendable.

of life, they have an unconditional security, once saved, always saved no matter what you do now it's better if you do that which pleases God you'll get more yo-yos in your bag at the last day, you'll be happier on your way to get your bag of yo-yos but you'll still get there third class citizen, but you'll get there and brethren, we can adopt a kind of carnal Christian doctrine with regard to intercessory prayer we would not deny that it is desirable commendable and ideal but we must put it in the same category with clear, biblical, accurate spirit-anointed preaching and wise, loving discerni...

16:15 - 17:43 Read in full sermon

The point: Recognize the tactical timing of the flesh's aversion -- that it intensifies precisely at the moment of scheduled prayer -- as a predictable spiritual reality to be met with anticipatory resolve, not surprised defeat.

Martin describes how the moment scheduled for intercession arrives, the mind suddenly 'begins to spit out all the things that yet need to be done like a day planner that suddenly developed a voice of its own' -- a vivid picture of the flesh's tactical opposition precisely at the season of duty.

indwelling sin is effectually operative in rebelling and inclining to evil when the will of doing good is in a particular manner active and inclining unto obedience and there Owens knowledge of the human heart is without parallel in my judgment and then you begin to understand why is it that there was very little consciousness of the aversion of this contrary principle when I was on the phone with a friend having good fellowship or sharing a burden of a fellow pastor but I look at the clock and this is the time for intercession and suddenly there is this dullness that creeps over the spirit th...

26:33 - 28:01 Read in full sermon

The point: Recognize the tactical timing of the flesh's aversion -- that it intensifies precisely at the moment of scheduled prayer -- as a predictable spiritual reality to be met with anticipatory resolve, not surprised defeat.

Martin quotes Lloyd-Jones's teaching that a truly Spirit-filled Christian 'is never a man who has to drag himself and force himself to do things' -- which Martin then critiques as 'utterly imbalanced and out of the tenor of the total witness of the word of God,' citing Paul's own buffeting of his body as the refutation.

4 I think it is on quenching the spirit I'm not sure what book this is from I'm sorry but it's Dr. Lloyd Jones and he says how do we know whether the spirit is working in us powerfully one test is found in the epistles of the Philippians many quotes God is it working you to willing to do this good pleasure God works in every Christian by and through the spirit the fire the power he prompts us he urges us he leads us as Paul expresses in Romans 8 14 the spirit produces a kind of disturbance within us moving urging prompting we are aware of a power dealing with us a power other than ourselves an...

28:01 - 29:29 Read in full sermon

The point: Recognize the tactical timing of the flesh's aversion -- that it intensifies precisely at the moment of scheduled prayer -- as a predictable spiritual reality to be met with anticipatory resolve, not surprised defeat.

Martin uses the metaphor of the final lap of a race to describe the increased spiritual danger of his own stage of life, noting that if the devil can disqualify a long-distance veteran he gains far more fuel to undermine the validity of the Christian faith -- and therefore the warfare intensifies, not diminishes, toward the end.

I believe as a man getting into his latter lap if the devil can get someone out of the race who's run it for a long time he's got much more fuel with which to undermine the reality and the validity of the Christian faith and therefore I don't expect that the warfare is going to get any less vehement and violent and vicious but it's going to increase we wrestle not against flesh and blood but we do wrestle yes this was his commentary in Ephesians 6 10-13 I do have it in my notes his commentary on Ephesians 6 so there is this aversion of the flesh to the intense spirituality of this exercise sec...

30:57 - 32:24 Read in full sermon

The point: When faced with competing legitimate ministerial duties, self-control and prioritization -- not the elimination of prayer -- is the Spirit-enabled solution; prayer time must be carved out by self-denial from what the min…

An extended quotation from Walter Chantry's 'The Shadow of the Cross' (p.72) arguing that prayer time can only come from self-denial -- snatching it from one's own leisure -- illustrated with Moses forging a nation from two million slaves, Daniel occupied with affairs of state in Babylon, Luther praying three hours daily, and Christ reserving early morning or late hours for prayer.

sustained prayer is necessary such time may only be found by snatching it from personal pursuits however legitimate they may be ministers of the gospel find their schedules squeezed families may not be forsaken in order to give time for prayer for a well regulated home is the prerequisite to holding the office of an elder the flock may not be abandoned there are lost sheep to be sought straying sheep to be warned lambs to be instructed for all these souls an account must be given time for study may not be surrendered if a man's to feed the flock of God meditation, reading, diligent search of t...

41:14 - 42:42 Read in full sermon

The point: When faced with competing legitimate ministerial duties, self-control and prioritization -- not the elimination of prayer -- is the Spirit-enabled solution; prayer time must be carved out by self-denial from what the min…

Chantry's penetrating question -- 'how is it that ministers are too busy to be found in God's course but somehow their holidays are still fit into their schedule' -- is presented as 'penetrating searching convicting words but true words' and the sharpest practical indictment of ministerial prayerlessness.

but he used his own time to pray it is not that we are too busy to pray but the flesh is still too insistent on satisfaction days of fasting and prayer will be set aside from only one part of the calendar yours days of relaxation and recreation must be shortened holidays must diminish self must be intentionally denied that we might come to our knees how is it that ministers are too busy to be found in God's course but somehow their holidays are still fit into their schedule penetrating searching convicting words but true words and so at this practical level we must learn how to handle the appa...

42:42 - 44:09 Read in full sermon

The point: Set realistic goals for intercessory prayer -- build up gradually rather than committing to an hour immediately -- so that small achievable goals produce gratitude and momentum rather than guilt and paralysis.

Martin compares setting unrealistic prayer goals to the out-of-shape person who watches a TV program on cardiovascular health, buys a hundred-dollar pair of shoes and a fancy jogging outfit, maps a three-mile route -- and finds the gear untouched in the closet years later because they did not start out realistically.

I have already hinted at this in other contexts but I want to underscore it again with reference to the amount of time the scope of concerns covered and the level of spiritual energy to give yourself to that time and those issues you must not set realistic standards this is one of the snares of reading the biographies of men who were mighty in prayer and could pray for two and three four hours and say alright Lord I am going to start praying intercessory prayer for at least an hour a day and after fifteen to twenty minutes you are all prayed out and now you look at your clock and what happens ...

44:09 - 45:38 Read in full sermon

The point: Set realistic goals for intercessory prayer -- build up gradually rather than committing to an hour immediately -- so that small achievable goals produce gratitude and momentum rather than guilt and paralysis.

Martin shares his personal experience of deciding he could not live on borrowed past conditioning as his fortieth birthday approached, and beginning his daily exercise routine by running laps around his own backyard -- which onlookers thought was crazy -- then gradually building to seven-tenths of a mile, then a mile, then two miles. He applies this directly: 'it's the same way' with realistic prayer goals set in recent days.

and after the first or second day and years later the shoes and the jogging suit are there in the closet they didn't start out realistically I can remember as my fortieth birthday was approaching and I said I can't live on borrowed past conditioning I've got to start making conscience about daily exercise I didn't start out by running two or three miles I started out by running around my backyard now anyone seen me running around my backyard said the poor man is crazy well it wasn't long before the backyard sixteen twenty laps around that was boring seven tenths of a mile then a mile, mile and...

45:38 - 47:07 Read in full sermon

The point: Meditate regularly on 'the three nines' -- Ezra 9, Nehemiah 9, and Daniel 9 -- as models of what earnest fervent intercessory prayer looks like in Scripture, and use Paul's prayers as a pattern for your own.

Martin recounts visiting his mother, who rebinds old paperback books with shelf paper and re-sewed a copy of E.M. Bounds's 'Power Through Prayer' that had fallen into his hands as an eighteen-year-old. Lying in a hospital bed the previous day waiting for his colonoscopy, he re-read several chapters and saw his old underlining -- 'both encouraging humbling and convicting because to whom much is given of him shall much be required' -- a moving reminder that God holds us accountable for the light received in youth.

and she does a pretty nice job with them and she even re-sewed this and it was very moving to me even lying in a hospital bed yesterday waiting for my colonoscopy to re-read several of these chapters and to see the things I underlined as an 18 year old boy it was both encouraging humbling and convicting because to whom much is given of him shall much be required and to think that I read some of this stuff as an 18 year old kid and God's going to hold me accountable for that light and it was tremendously moving and I've determined to complete re-reading it and looking at my rather non-meet mark...

55:58 - 57:06 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin surveys five condemned forms of fasting -- mechanical (Isaiah 58:3), ascetic (Colossians 2:20-23), ostentatious (Matthew 6:16-17), legal and judgmental (Luke 18:11), and…

The mechanical view of fasting is illustrated as a slot-machine theology: 'we put the penny in the slot God how come we haven't hit the jackpot' -- God is pictured as obligated to bless regardless of the moral condition of those fasting, against which God says in Isaiah 58 that their fasting is a day of strife and contention.

legal judgmental or hypocritical there is abundant biblical warrant to condemn fasting for wrong motives there is the mechanical view remember Isaiah 58 3 here they are living in all kinds of sin read Isaiah chapter 1 for a catalog of those sins and yet they say to God wherefore have we fasted they say and you don't see wherefore have we afflicted our soul and you take no knowledge we put the penny in the slot God how come we haven't hit the jackpot it's a mechanical view of fasting we do this and then God obligates himself to bless us regardless of our ethical and moral condition and so God s...

71:44 - 73:13 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin surveys five condemned forms of fasting -- mechanical (Isaiah 58:3), ascetic (Colossians 2:20-23), ostentatious (Matthew 6:16-17), legal and judgmental (Luke 18:11), and…

Martin illustrates ostentatious fasting by picturing the Pharisee who puts on his sourest face and lets his stubble grow so everyone notices. Contrasted with the biblical command: 'you ought to come out from the place where you have been praying and fasting and people say you just come back from vacation man you have got a nice glow on your face put on some nights aftershave put on your bright face so only your Father who sees in secret will know that you are fasting.'

all which things are to perish with the using after the precepts and doctrines of men which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will-worship and humility and severity to the body but are not of any value against the indulgence of the flesh to fast from motives of asceticism the notion that by beating down the body I will beat down the flesh Paul says no you will indeed cause people to be amazed at your great composure of your will-power and apparent brokenness and humility and severity to the body but they are not of any value against the indulgence of the flesh and then there is the ostent...

73:13 - 74:41 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin surveys five condemned forms of fasting -- mechanical (Isaiah 58:3), ascetic (Colossians 2:20-23), ostentatious (Matthew 6:16-17), legal and judgmental (Luke 18:11), and…

The parable of the Pharisee and the Publican is illustrated vividly: the Pharisee 'is not talking to God, he is praying thus with himself' -- his boast about fasting twice a week is 'part of that whole spirit.' Martin adds that he has personally seen people looking down their noses at those who don't fast once a week, calling it 'the spirit of the Pharisee.'

you kill the nerve of any virtue before God when it becomes ostentatious and then it can be legal and judgmental you remember when the Pharisee is bragging he is not talking to God he is praying thus with himself what becomes part of this legal judgmental disposition that he has in the presence of God and in the presence of men the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself God I thank you I am not as the rest of men extortioners, unjust adulterers even as this publican a heart full of judgmentalism because he doesn't know his own sin I fast twice in the week you see it is part of that whole ...

74:41 - 76:10 Read in full sermon