83a) Pastoral Intercessory Prayer #2

Introduction: Why Is Ministerial Intercession So Difficult?

0:02 Having considered the call of the man of God to the pastoral office, the life of that man in that office, and his labor in preaching and in overseeing the flock of God, we are now in this fifth major category of ministerial responsibility, namely the pastor as an intercessor for the people of God. In our initial study last week, we were directed to consider the duty of ministerial intercessory prayer and then briefly the dominant concerns of ministerial intercessory prayer. Now, if the duty is so clearly established from the precepts and from the precedence of Scripture, and if the concerns are so central to the success of the ministry, why is it so difficult both to attain... and maintain any level of consistency in this duty?

1:01 And any man who is honest with his own heart and honest with his brethren will acknowledge that perhaps there is no area of ministerial responsibility in which it is more difficult to maintain a semblance of true fidelity. And so, as ugly as it is to look into the sinkhole of our own hearts that contribute to this, we must take up today...

1:25 the major hindrances to ministerial intercessory prayer. It's listed in your notes as unit number three, the major hindrances. And in seeking to handle the material, we're going to take up three major categories of the hindrances, then some suggestions to counteract the hindrances, and then, as time permits, a fifth category of two miscellaneous concerns relative to ministerial...

1:55 ministerial intercessory prayer. Now, my judgment is that the hindrances fall into three broad categories. And while there is some overlapping and interpenetration between them, I trust for the ends of edification, isolating them and identifying them in these three categories will prove helpful to you men. And the categories are theological hindrances, spiritual hindrances, and practical hindrances.

Theological Hindrance 1: A Defective Theology of Prayer and Divine Sovereignty

2:25 On the other hand, under the theological, I've named two. First of all, a defective theology of prayer in relationship to the divine purpose and will. I think all of us, I would be surprised if not all of us, can remember when we first began to come to grips at some cognitive level with the biblical doctrine of the divine decrees or the biblical doctrine of comprehensive predestination that we did not experience some real trauma when we began to wrestle with the relationship of prayer to the divine decrees. For some, we may have wrestled with the whole issue of if God has a people and he's chosen them, Christ has died to redeem them, and the Spirit as the executor of the will of the Father and the Son will infallibly call them, what is the place of preaching along with the place of praying? And I think most of us found that the why preach question, was easier to resolve. And I think it was easier to resolve because we can see more readily the relationship between preaching and the calling of God's elect. The Lord Jesus said in John 10, 16, Other sheep I have that are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold, one shepherd.

3:50 And we know from Romans 10, 13 and following that the voice of Christ is heard in the proclamation, of the word of Christ. And likewise with respect to the maturation of the saints. We know that our Lord prays, sanctify them in the truth, thy word is truth. Ephesians 4 verse 15, Speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things.

4:13 But in preaching, that's an activity that we do in God's name, and on behalf of God that has a manward direction. We preach to men, confident that God will bless his word to the calling of the sheep for whom Christ died. However, when we pray, this is a heavenward activity. This is an activity in which we are seeking to secure the help and the intervention of God on behalf of others.

4:43 We are not standing as the instrument of God bringing his word to others, but we're standing before God on behalf of others pleading with him to do things in the hearts of men. And as far as, I'm concerned at the end of the day, whatever penetrating insights God may give us from the word with respect to this whole question of what is the relationship between the prayers of the people of God and the actings of a sovereign God to whom his works are known, the end from the beginning. We've got to come to the simplicity of childlike faith in the explicit statements of the word of God. When we come to a passage like James 4.2, we need to take it at face value. You have not because you ask not. And there the impoverished state of the believer is laid at the feet of his own prayerlessness. Now ultimately, the decree of God has not been, as it were, thrown off, even in the failures of the child of God.

5:48 But James does not say you have not because it was decreed that you should be in that state of impoverishment. He says you have not because you ask not. From the positive perspective, the words of our Lord Jesus in Matthew 7.7, Ask, and it shall be given you.

6:06 No parenthetical statements, if indeed it has been decreed from all eternity. Seek, and ye shall find, parenthesis, if indeed you seek what has been decreed. Ask, seek, knock, and there is the explicit promise that to our asking God gives, to our seeking we shall find, to our knocking, it shall be opened. Or take that broad promise of our Lord in Matthew 18.19, if two of you shall agree on earth as touching the things they ask, it shall be given of my Father. And then the encouragement of our Lord in the two dominant parables on prayer in Luke 11 and Luke 18, underscoring the place of importunity, holy insistence in our praying. And then the Lord's statement in Mark 9.29, this kind goes not out but by prayer.

7:01 And at the end of the day, I think we need to see the whole operations of the kingdom of God in its advancement in the conversion of sinners, in the building up of saints, in terms of the very law of the kingdom to which Messiah himself has subjected himself. I will tell of the decree, I will tell of the decree, we are told in Psalm 2, so that whatever is promised, to Messiah is rooted in divine decree. I will tell of the decree. And what is the decree?

7:35 Here it is. The Lord said unto me, You are my son, this day have I begotten you, that is, begotten you to your place of messianic kingship and exaltation. And in that place, what is he to do? Rest upon my decree?

7:53 No. Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your exaltation, and the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession. Messiah must ask for the very thing it is decreed to give him. And if Messiah must ask, how much more the servants of Messiah.

8:13 And therefore, any view of prayer that is biblical is one in which our dealings with God will be intensely personal, honest, earnest, bold, and believing. We do not pretend that we are not in the presence of God. We pretend that we can sort out precisely how our prayers are woven into the texture of God's decree and the outworking of His sovereign purposes. But we can know that He has said to us in Christ, Ask, and it shall be given you.

8:43 And be unashamed to ask with the insistence of the friend who came to his friend at midnight and was not turned away when he had a first refusal. Our Lord is doing that to encourage us to ask. Now, there are all kinds, all kinds of real problems in conjunction with the asking. And I'm as aware of those problems as you are.

9:03 And the older you get, your basket of problems will get bigger. But we must never allow the problems connected with prayer to take away from us that childlike simple confidence in the word and promise that God has given us in the Scriptures. And so, often, theological problems lie at the root of failure to be tenacious in pastoral, ministerial intercession because, though we would theoretically deny that we have a problem of the relationship between prayer and the sovereignty of God or the decree of God, in reality, we have allowed something to be short-circuited. And if we have in our blessed Lord, in the perfection of His humanity, examples of wrestling and even asking for something that it was not the will of the Father to give, we should never be embarrassed that we may be asking for things that it's not the Father's will to give. Oh, my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. And He prayed it not only once, but He went back again and prayed the same words a second time.

10:18 So, in our Lord, we have the example of one who comes to that which was decreed on His behalf by means of asking, and we have in that example, the example of our Lord, one who asks for something that was not the will of God to give. And He did so without sin. And this should free us up from any sense of bondage that we are somehow seeking to alter by our feeble cries what God has purposed in His eternal decree. The rule of our prayers is to be the promises and the precepts of Scripture as with the rule of our walking while coming to God.

10:59 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.

11:17 That's a pagan concept of prayer. But neither do we fall into a de facto hyper-Calvinistic kind of prayer in which we only view prayer in terms of its subjective influence upon our own hearts. Not knowing the mind of God with respect to who He has set His love upon from eternity, we are warranted to pray for all kinds of men. In loving our neighbor, we are to desire the salvation of every one of them and to express that desire in our prayers.

11:48 And at the point of our prayers, it's as though the doctrine of election is not even known to us.

11:56 Does that sound like a contradiction? I hope not. There are times in our prayers when the doctrine of election will be at the forefront of our prayers. When we will be praying with confidence, Lord, we know that You will call out Your own.

12:10 But there are other times when praying for specific individuals, we have no way of knowing what God has decreed. And God is not displeased when we plead with Him out of a heart suffused with something of His own love for people who may ultimately prove to be non-elect and reprobate. God will never be displeased because we prayed for them. So, brethren, I would urge you not to let yourself at any point in your Christian experience allow your mind to go into any field of rationalizing that will take away your delight to take the promises of God and press them before Him with earnestness when you pray. A defective theology of prayer in relationship to the divine purpose and will can cut the nerve of consistency and passion in intercessory prayer. But then, secondly, a defective theology of prayer in relationship to the other revealed duties of the ministry. I trust that each of us is convinced that accurate, clear, earnest proclamation of biblical truth is an indispensable part of ministerial duty. If I were to question each of you men one by one, how many of you believe that accurate, clear, earnest proclamation of biblical truth is a negotiable duty of the Christian ministry?

Theological Hindrance 2: Relegating Prayer to Optional Status

13:33 I hope each of you would say, no, non-negotiable. Second Timothy 2.15, do your utmost, budazo, do your utmost to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, cutting a straight course in the word of truth. We believe that the admonition and charge of Paul to Timothy rests upon every servant of God in Second Timothy 4.4.

13:57 Preach the word. Preach the word. That's our duty. Non-negotiable.

14:02 And we are convinced in the theater of our consciences if we fail to do this, we incur real guilt. And we must seek forgiveness and bring forth fruits meet for repentance. Furthermore, I trust we're all convinced that biblically grounded, loving, patient and impartial direction and oversight of the people of God is an indispensable duty of the Christian ministry. We believe Acts 20.28, take heed to yourselves and to all the flock in the which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. We believe the injunction of Peter in 1 Peter 5, rests upon us. Non-negotiable. The elders among you I exhort.

14:49 Shepherd, tend the flock of God, not of constraint, but of a ready mind, not as lording it over God's heritage and of making yourselves examples to the flock. And if we fail to do that, we have a conscience that would smite us, and we know we've incurred guilt for which we need to seek forgiveness and from the Spirit of God seek grace to reform in those areas of deficiency. However, a great hindrance to consistency in pastoral intercession is that we develop a false theology which has parallels to the doctrine of the carnal Christian. You see, in the doctrine of the carnal Christian, we say we must acknowledge our own sinfulness to be a Christian that's essential we must rest solely in what Christ has done for sinners as of the very essence of saving faith however, following the profession of acknowledged sin and faith in Christ a life of holiness is desirable commendable but optional I've never met anyone who holds the doctrine of the carnal Christian that would not say well, holiness is desirable and it is commendable but it is not essential, it's ideal but not necessary not necessary to the attainment

16:15 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 discerning, responsible pastoral oversight we must place intercessory prayer in the same category as an indisputable non-negotiable duty of the work of the ministry and if we put it in any other category, we're going to fail in it again and again and again the same way, under the pressure of some of your fiercest temptations if you believe the carnal Christian doctrine and did not say to yourself, what is now proposed to my mind, to follow that, is to unravel all hope that I'm a child of God and put myself on the high road to apostasy that hand must be cut off

17:43 if it isn't, it'll burn in hell that's the motivation Jesus gives and there are times when it's that motivation that draws us in because we know holiness is not optional we pursue it, without which we know no man shall see God well in the same way, if we're to load shot against the tendency to be slipshod and careless and inconsistent in ministerial prayer we must have a theology of that duty and privilege in which we regard failure in it as nothing short of sin, and that's why I've listed 1 Samuel 12 23 as perhaps the clearest text in all of scripture with respect to this matter you remember that the man of God has expostulated with the people regarding their desire to have a king and now he comes in his final solemn address to the people, and we read in verse 19 all the people said unto Samuel pray for your servants unto the Lord your God that we die not, for we've added unto all our sins this evil to ask a king for ourselves and Samuel said unto the people fear not, you have indeed done all this evil, yet turn not aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart and turn not aside, for then you would go after vain things which cannot profit nor deliver, for

19:12 they are vain, for the Lord will not forsake his people for his great namesake, because it is pleased the Lord to make you a people unto himself, now here's a statement of the absolute certainty of God's continued favor to his chosen people the Lord will not forsake his people, why? for the protection of his own name, for his own namesake because it pleased the Lord to make you a people to himself, here he has absolute confidence that the gifts and callings of God are without repentance, but look at his next statement moreover as for me far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you you see the conjunction of those things absolute certainty that the Lord will not forsake his people his name is at stake it is God who took the initiative to draw them to himself and yet Samuel is convinced that he does not pray for them, he will be sinning not only against them, that's implicit but explicitly, he will be sinning against Jehovah sinning against God, why? because God had put him in a place of unique responsibility with respect to the nation and he is not only to instruct them and he goes right on to say that, but I will instruct you in the good and right way but he not only instructs and admonishes and exhorts

20:39 but he commits himself to intercessory prayer on their behalf and so I urge you brethren not to allow yourselves to imbibe imperceptibly a defective theology of prayer in relationship to the other revealed duties of the ministry, but load your conscience with this biblical perspective that as surely as I need the fountain open for sin and uncleanness in my failures and shortcomings in the area of public teaching and preaching as surely as I need that fountain for my failures in oversight of the flock of God and specific pastoral involvement with them so likewise, failures in intercessory prayer make me culpable and put me in the posture where I need to go to the fountain open for sin and uncleanness and having gone, pray for grace to bring forth fruits, meat for repentance so that's the first category of the hindrances to ministering to ministerial intercessory prayer what I've called theological hindrances now we come to spiritual hindrances those having to do not so much with the judgment of our minds but with the dynamics of the Christian life and experience and I've listed three of these major spiritual hindrances to ministerial intercessory prayer

Spiritual Hindrance 1: The Aversion of the Flesh to Intense Prayer

22:07 and the first is what I've described as the aversion of the flesh to the intensely spiritual, exercises of pastoral prayer the aversion of the flesh to the intense spirituality of the exercise of pastoral intercessory prayer the two texts that I've listed are familiar to you, Galatians 5, 17 the flesh is lusting against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these two for these are contrary the one to the other the flesh is lusting against the spirit the spirit against the flesh now this is not the two nature theory of the Christian life that you have an old nature and a new nature and a war and the old nature can do nothing but sin the new nature can do nothing but that which is virtuous and you're caught somewhere as a third party outside the two natures fighting within you no, that's not the teaching of the passage but the passage is teaching that there is in the believer this irreconcilable war between the remnants of sin here called the flesh and the indwelling dominating influence of the Holy Spirit and there is this constant warfare and an extended commentary upon this in my judgment standing with what I would call the classic protestant

23:35 and reformed interpretation of Romans 7, 18 and 23 is that we have in the Romans 7 passage the expanded verse of what is here declared and Owen very perceptively underscores in his exposition of Romans 7, 21 the principle that I'm trying to highlight for you he writes on page 161 of volume 6 fourthly there is another thing remaining in these words of the apostle arising from that respect that the presence of sin has unto the time and season of duty and then he focuses on the words when I would do good evil is present with me there are two things to be considered in the will of doing good that is in believers number one there is its habitual residence in them the prevailing disposition of a true believer is a disposition to do good he has a commitment to a life of righteousness but then he said secondly there are special times and seasons for the exercise of that principle there is a when I would do good end quote a season where in this or that good this or that duty is to be performed and accomplished suitably unto the habitual preparation and inclination of the will the preparation and inclination of the will is to love your wife

25:04 now there is a situation where she has just proven herself very unlovely yet you will to do the good of loving her as Christ loved you he said now that is a season of peculiar intensified desire to do good put it into the area of our subject the time is coming that you have allocated for ministerial intercessory prayer you would as a man committed to being a prayerful man you would do the specific good of praying for those specific names in your church directory praying for those fellow office whatever the thing is allocated for that time of intercession Owens point is that unto these two there are two things in indwelling sin opposed it is opposed to the gracious principle residing in the will inclining to that which is spiritually good it is opposed as it is a law that is a contrary principle inclining to evil with an aversation from that which is good the flesh is continually lusting against the spirit but now he says there is a second manifestation unto this second or the actual willing this or that good in particular unto this when I would do good is opposed the presence of this law evil is present with me evil is at hand and ready to oppose the actual accomplishment of the good aimed at whence

26:33 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 the mind 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 do this do this do this do this do this do this do this none of those things were there in the previous activity what's the explanation here's the explanation the aversion of the flesh to the intense spirituality of the exercise of pastoral prayer and that's going to be with you all your days and I take no delight in exposing what I think is a dangerous teaching but it needs to be done lest some dear soul fall prey to it or you read this and say there must be something tragically wrong with me in chapter 20 of the doctor's expositions in Ephesians chapter

28:01 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 another test is that the spirit always leads to life and vigor and liveliness the truly spiritual man the Christian filled with the spirit is never a man who has to drag himself and force himself to do things there's a power in him a vigor and liveliness because the spirit is a life giving spirit the contrast drawn in scripture between the non-Christian and the Christian is that between someone who's dead in trespasses and sins and someone who's alive from the dead who's been born again the non-Christian is dead is lifeless he knows nothing about God nothing about the life of the soul nothing about a spiritual energy he does not live he only exists that's the tragedy of the world today everyone who is a Christian filled with the spirit knows about this vigor

29:29 this liveliness so he does not have to drive himself or urge himself or drag himself to God's house or to anything he does as a Christian the energy of the spirit is moving in him and then he goes on to cite several texts that he thinks support that view well let's allow that in trying to emphasize that there is an experiential dimension of the operations of the spirit which at time make it as natural as breathing to do that which is good to state that that is the unbroken norm if you are filled with the spirit is utterly imbalanced and out of the tenor of the total witness of the word of God otherwise the Apostle Paul could never have said what he did when I would do good evil is present with me we that are in this tabernacle do wrong being burdened I buffet my body and keep it under lest in preaching to others I myself should be a document no brethren that aversion that aversion will be there to the end of your days and I got a sneaking suspicion you're going to find it increases the closer you get to the river if you wonder why the scripture and church history records so many men on doing in the latter lap of their life all they accomplished in the first lap

30:57 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 second spiritual hindrance is this the opposition of the powers of darkness to our gaining efficiency in this exercise why are the powers of darkness peculiarly set on keeping a servant of God from gaining efficiency and consistency in intercessory prayer well I believe the answer lies in the two texts that I put in the notes in 2 Corinthians chapter 10 the apostle writes for though we walk in the flesh not speaking there flesh as moral morally reprehensible activity but we walk in the flesh that is men in our bodily existence we do not war according to the flesh for the weapons

Spiritual Hindrance 2: Demonic Opposition to Effective Intercession

32:24 of our warfare are not of the flesh but mighty before God to the casting down of strongholds casting down reasonings and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ he says we have weapons that are not fleshly but they are mighty before God to the casting down of strongholds and we know from the analogy of scripture that among those weapons none is mightier than intercessory prayer and in Ephesians 6 10 to 12 the apostle tells us that our wrestling is not against flesh and blood we are to be strong in the Lord in the strength of his might to put on the whole arm of God why because our wrestling is not against flesh and blood but against the principalities against the powers against the world rulers of this darkness against the spiritual host of wickedness in the heavenly places wherefore take up the whole armor of God and how does he conclude that exhortation he concludes it with verse 18 and following with all prayer and supplication praying at all seasons in the spirit so that in this conflict with the powers of darkness unseen yet real powers there is an opposition from those powers to keep us from using

33:52 that weapon that is most effectual in their defeat you remember that strange passage in Daniel chapter 10 the moment he set himself to seek the face of God God tells him later he was heard but there were these spiritual powers that hindered the angel from coming and bringing the assurance of the answer and I can't explain that brethren but it's there in my bible as it's there in your bible and surely it makes sense that if in intercessory prayer we are entering into a realm of engaging these powers and these principalities that oppose Christ and oppose his kingdom then surely he would delight to keep us from using the weapons that are most effectual in spelling his own defeat and we've got to recognize this if we don't we'll leave ourselves vulnerable being turned aside from this privilege and duty and finding a semblance of some good reason to do so not realizing that we are capitulating to the very powers of darkness that oppose us in our spiritual warfare and then thirdly as to a spiritual hindrance it's what I've described as the negative influence of a grieved holy spirit if the spirit is the spirit of grace and supplication and he is and if we are commanded to pray in the spirit and we are Ephesians 6 and verse 18 Jude and verse

Spiritual Hindrance 3: The Grieved Holy Spirit

35:20 20 we are to build ourselves up in our most holy faith keep ourselves in the love of God and pray in the spirit then surely a grieved spirit is a spirit who will not in the language of 8 26 we will not know his help likewise the spirit also helps our infirmity what infirmity the infirmity of not knowing how to pray as we ought feeling the frustrations of prayer Paul felt them we know not how to pray as we ought he felt the frustrations of prayer but he says in that infirmity the spirit helps us the spirit is the one who comes alongside and becomes the advocate within even as we have an advocate above and without us but now if he is grieved Ephesians 4 30 he is a person and if he is grieved by the toleration of an ethical abnormality by the refusal to acknowledge a sin that has come into the theater of our consciousness as I sought to describe transgressions last week in opening up verse 28 13 if he is grieved at the level of the ethical do we think we can just come into the closet flip the switch and know his presence enabling us in prayer we don't play games with God you cannot you cannot pick and choose the operations of the holy spirit that you would like to have in your present experience and if he is grieved

36:49 in area A then his ministry in areas B C and D to some extent will be restrained in us if there is a waning love to our people he alone can sustain a love to our people if we are grieving him and there is no love for our people where will be the passion to pray for if he is the spirit who enables us to take hold of the promises and quickens faith in our hearts if he is grieved and there is no prayer of faith it will be not long before there will be no prayer who wants to mock himself by mumbling words that he knows have no suffusion and there is no life with present confidence in the promises of God well brethren these are your three great spiritual hindrances and they are going to be with you all of your days and it is possible to have a true theology of prayer and yet be greatly hindered if we don't recognize what is the source of this aversion and know how to deal with it and to recognize the powers of darkness that are set against us to keep us from being efficient in prayer and to ask ourselves if indeed our indisposition to pray and our inability to pray with any degree of grip and liberty and utterance in the secret place is the result of a grieved Holy Spirit and then the third category of the hindrances to ministerial intercessory prayer or what I have called

Practical Hindrance 1: Apparently Conflicting Ministerial Duties

38:17 practical not that the other perspectives aren't practical but again trying to put them in workable categories and here I have listed three of them first of all the apparently conflicted ministerial duties and responsibilities you see it is relatively easy if God has enabled you to commit yourself to a life of abiding in Christ maintaining a conscience void of offense to God and man it is relatively easy when duty presents itself as one fork in the road and sin presents itself in the other it is relatively easy to know what the choice ought to be and I hope by a habit of soul increasingly easy to make the right choice to reckon yourself in union with Christ to be dead indeed unto sin not to present your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin but afresh presenting yourself unto God and your members as instruments of righteousness unto Him but what is difficult is when you come to the fork in the road and it is duty and duty and both duties are calling and you can see that the road has been paved by the scriptures that is when it is difficult and that is one of the practices of the biblical difficulties in attaining and maintaining some degree of consistency in ministerial intercessory prayer is the apparent conflicting ministerial duties if I give this much time to this

39:46 then my preaching will not be accurate it will not be well structured it will not be illustrated it will be shabby and feathery in its applications if I give this time to hear I will not have the time I ought to give to my wife and my children to family worship to general reading to correspondence to nurturing friendships well I can only say that we come back to the basic issues of self control the fruit of the spirit is self control and the requirement for an elder Titus 1.8 is that he be self controlled and must have an growing ability cultivated by the word and the spirit to differentiate between the duty that is compelling and ought to have my attention now and the duty that must wait for another time to be performed and that's going to mean that time for prayer is going to be time cut out in the path of self denial and here I want to quote from Pastor Chantry's book The Shadow of the Cross he has some of the most helpful insights on this that I've ever read page 72 self must be denied as to time for prayer all prayer cannot be wielded without the expenditure of time a minute with God seldom lays hold of him

41:14 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 the word is indispensable what then will a minister when then will a minister find time to pray tomorrow will offer no more leisure the time can only be located in what the minister might call his own time it's striking that the greatest men of prayer in history have been some of the busiest men in the world think of Moses forging a nation from more than two million slaves look at Daniel occupied with affairs of the state in Babylon think of Luther professor, bible translator, pastor prolific writer who prayed three hours each day but the chief example of them all is our Lord Jesus Christ who reserved early morning or late hours for prayer if anyone was entitled to relax or seek refreshment it was our holy master

42:42 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 apparently conflicting ministerial duties and responsibilities and independence upon our Lord Jesus and by the enablement of the spirit so controlled the use of our time that while none of us will ever feel that we can stand on the top of the mountain and say hey you fellow stragglers come up where I am we shall be able to say at least with a measure of a good conscience that by the grace of God we have not been chronically deficient in the duties of ministerial intercession but then the second practical hindrance is what I have described is not realistically structuring the goals for this exercise

Practical Hindrance 2: Setting Unrealistic Goals

44:09 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 you either come to the conclusion you made an unrealistic goal or you load yourself with more guilt and when you are laden down with the guilt what does that do to any excitement about coming to pray tomorrow it cuts the nerve of it and as in all other spiritual disciplines we must be realistic in structuring the goals to develop in this area with respect to the amount of things to be covered and the amount of time given don't be like all the out of shape people who see a TV program on the place of good cardiovascular exercise and avoiding so many physical ills and they haven't walked a half a mile in twenty years let alone run and they go out and buy a hundred dollar pair of shoes and they get themselves a fancy jogging outfit and they map out a three mile thing they are going to do

45:38 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 a half, two miles until it got up to where I was running enough to accomplish the purposes of it but I didn't I had sense enough not to try to bite it off all at once well it's the same way even in recent days brethren as God has dealt with me as I indicated last week God has helped me to set some realistic goals to push myself in this area where I have not pushed myself and yet I've known enough of my past failures to set realistic goals I look back and say by the grace of God this week x number of days of the week I've accomplished my goals in intercession and that gives you not only a sense of gratitude to God but that nerves you to say if God helped me these days God can help me best and it's not that self-defeating cycle of unrealistic goals that come prompting down the back of your neck with the big hobnailed boots of guilt because of failure

Practical Hindrance 3: Failure to Stir Oneself Up

47:07 and the failure is not just the aversion of your flesh and the powers of darkness but it's a real challenge for yourself in this area and then the third practical cause of failure in this is what I'm calling failure to constantly stir yourself up to greater efficiency in this exercise one of the texts that I've listed Isaiah 64 in verse 7 is one of the fattest verses in I think all of the scriptures where God waits to be desired and sought by his people and yet this is what he says in Isaiah 64 in verse 7 there is none that calls upon your name that stirs up himself to take hold of you for you have hid your face from us and have consumed us by means of our iniquities what a tragic thing that God has to say through the prophet there is no one who stirs himself up to take hold of the living God here he stands ready to be taken hold of in prayer and he says there is no one who will stir himself up to take hold of him how often has God had to say that to me if only I would stir myself up with appropriate thoughts of God's willingness and readiness to hear the strategic place of prayer what kinds of stumblings and failures and shameful lapses are in the people of God

48:35 from this perspective as the living monument of my prayerlessness and as a pastor you've got to ask that God holds every believer accountable for what he does with his stock of grace God will hold every believer accountable but surely he holds us accountable who are to pray and travail that Christ be formed in them and when you see lapses in your people you can't help but ask the question is that lapse in spite of my fervent prayers for their growth in grace or is that lapse in part the result of my prayerlessness and I tell you a few things are more convicting brethren you see the question knowing they're fully accountable it's one thing when someone lapses over whom you've labored in prayer it doesn't make it any easier it'll break your heart even more as Paul could say several places in the epistles brethren I fear lest I've bestowed labor in vain that's a terrible thing to have a broken heart you bestowed labor in prayer in vain as far as the present appearances but that's far better than saying could it be that that very lapse is the fruit of my not praying and one of the ways that we do this is to stir ourselves up I've listed 2 Peter 1.13 the whole concept of stirring up ourselves Peter says I tell you these things not only because you know them and are established in them but I think it meet

50:04 as long as I'm in this tabernacle to stir you up by way of remembrance and I would urge you brethren to constantly seek to stir yourselves up by appropriate means to be diligent and to increase in consistency in the labor of ministerial intercession well then let me very quickly no let's break here then we can take up specific suggestions with respect to overcoming these hindrances and then the miscellaneous concerns of prayer in relationship to fasting and in relationship to your fellow elders so let's take our 10 minute break now and come back a quarter after alright before you the 3 categories of the hindrances to ministerial intercession we come now in the fourth place to take up some specific suggestions with respect to overcoming the hindrances and gaining efficiency in prayer and the first seems so obvious but it is a matter again that we often lose the battle in the most obvious and basic issues that we cry to God to make us mighty in prayer and remember the incident in Luke chapter 11 that apparently the disciples either came upon our Lord as He was praying or the Lord had drawn aside to pray yet in close enough proximity that they could hear Him in His prayers and as they as it were eavesdropped on the prayers of our Lord it exposed their own deficiency

Practical Suggestions for Overcoming the Hindrances

51:33 in prayer and so they say Lord teach us to pray and then a fascinating thing we wouldn't know from any other part in the Gospel records that one of the things John did with his disciples was to teach them to pray through one of those little strokes that you have here there's no record in the ministry of John he was calling people to repentance he was pointing to the Lamb of God to the Son of God John chapter 1 but here we see that he taught his disciples to pray and so they cry out Lord teach us to pray and surely that request is never out of place nor is it ever treated with indifference by our Lord when we're asking Him to teach us to pray to know how to pray how to wrestle with God in prayer as He wrestled with the Father we are praying according to the will of God we don't ever need to say Lord give me this it would be Your will this is one of the prayers that we can say Lord Your will is made known in the Scripture I plead with You teach me to pray and then secondly allocate specific time for this exercise and here we could bring many scriptures but I just use as one in buttressing this very obvious matter Daniel's experience as recorded in Daniel chapter 6 and verse 10 you remember that in that crisis that came with respect to the edict that was demanding that worship be given to the creature which Daniel as the true

53:01 son of the covenant would give to Jehovah alone that in Daniel chapter 6 and verse 10 we read and when Daniel knew that the writing was signed he went into his house now his windows were open in his chamber toward Jerusalem and he kneeled upon his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he did aforetime here was a pattern of commitment to pray three times a day I'm not saying that from this we deduce that we ought to have three times a day but the principle is that the man of God Daniel did not wait for the inspiration of the moment to allocate time to pray he worked it into his daily schedule with all of the responsibilities that were upon him so that in the crisis he's not scurrying about trying to make himself acquainted with the throne of grace he's been there three times a day in days when there was no crisis so that in the crisis he just carries through and adds to whatever else he made the subject and the concerns of his prayers this that grows out of the present pressing set of circumstances and then the obvious flip side of the hindrance of setting unrealistic goals set realistic goals what are those goals only you can determine before God and none of us has the same complex of everything from our other responsibilities domestically personally

54:29 etc but set realistic goals as you seek to plan out your days and your weeks before the eye of God set realistic goals for those specific times to give yourself to ministerial intercession and then fourth suggestion meditate on suitable portions of the word of God look to those portions of the word of God where we see men at prayer the three nines never forget them Ezra 9 Nehemiah 9 and Daniel 9 three of the most helpful passages showing what's involved in earnest fervent intercessory prayer here again I commend for your constant and careful perusal Donald Carson's book a call to spiritual reformation take the prayers of Paul as a pattern for your own prayers and to be stirred up to this duty meditate on the portions of the word of God particularly suited to create impetus and give direction and encouragement and then my fifth line of practical counsel is to read books calculated to move you in pursuit of this duty recently when I was visiting my mother she handed me a copy of Iain Bond's Power Through Prayer that fell into my hands as an 18 year old kid and she re-bombed it this is one of the ways she spends her time finding paperback books that she can re-bind with the shelf paper

55:58 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 markings all the way through it's brought back many memories of those early days but I'm sure it made a stamp upon my spirit that I've long since forgotten of where the stamp came from but I urge you E.M. Bounds is not to be followed in his theological acumen at many points but in terms of a writer who can be used of God to stir you up to pray Palmer's work on the theology of prayer D.M. McIntyre's

57:06 little work on prayer Brooks, Volume 1, The Pretty Key to Heaven the biographies of McShane and Payson and all of these others the materials are there but I urge you constantly to read those things that will stir us up it's part of that stirring up ourselves to take hold of God and few things will do it like reading of someone who did find a good measure of liberty and efficiency at the throne of grace so I leave these specific suggestions with you and trust that God will be pleased to use at least some of them in your life if not now down the road as you find yourself in a position where some of these things will come back to you to be stirred up to be more dedicated and given to this labor God will use perhaps some of these means now then we come finally to miscellaneous concerns relative to the duty of ministerial prayer and I want to address more extensively the whole question of prayer in relationship to fasting and then more briefly intercessory prayer in relationship to your fellow elders now it's not my purpose to give a general treatment on the subject of fasting as a religious exercise let me give you a little bibliography that will help you if you don't have at your fingertips a broad biblical overview I commend for your careful reading the article in Zondervan's

Bibliography and Framework for Understanding Fasting

58:34 Pictorial Bible Dictionary on fasting it's an excellent article a little bit weak at the end but as a basic overview of the biblical doctrine of fasting it is helpful the article in Baker's Dictionary of Theology again very good in my judgment accurate balanced and then in A.W. Pink's exposition of the Sermon on the Mount particularly his treatment of Matthew 6 16 to 18 excellent section likewise Lloyd-Jones on the same passage in his two volume work on the Sermon on the Mount and then pages 340 to 343 of Hendrickson's commentary on Matthew very helpful collation so at certain points Hendrickson will give you a digression in which he'll cull a lot of biblical material under a given text that he's dealing with and then of course Miller's little booklet on fasting by Presbyterian Heritage, Samuel Miller it's just called Fasting and then the chapter in Donald Whitney's book I've listed that at the end of the lecture Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life he has a chapter on fasting and suffice it to say that here I'm using the word

60:01 in these brief remarks referring to the partial or total abstinence from food and drink for the purpose of assisting us in unusual or protracted seasons of intercessory prayer the partial or total abstinence from food and never total so long from drink for the purpose of assisting us in unusual or protracted seasons of prayer so that I'm not thinking of fasting in any other relationship but its relationship to and in conjunction with a season of intense commitment to pray not only in general but specifically what we're dealing with ministerial prayer and I've listed the basic heads of what I believe to be an accurate treatment of the subject of fasting and first there is sufficient biblical warrant to assert that fasting can be and in some circumstances ought to be a handmaiden to unusual seasons of ministerial prayer now that's a mouthful but again in trying to be balanced brethren because here we're dealing with duty and conscience and we must tread very carefully there is sufficient biblical warrant to assert that fasting can be and in some circumstances ought to be a handmaiden to unusual seasons of ministerial prayer when our Lord deals with the subject

Fasting Proposition 1: Sufficient Biblical Warrant for Fasting as a Handmaiden to Prayer

61:30 it's very interesting there are only two places of unquestioned textual certainty as you go through all of the recorded statements of our Lord there are two passages in which he addresses fasting with absolutely no question as to what he did say in Matthew 6 verses 16 to 18 moreover when you fast be not as the hypocrites of a sad countenance for they disfigure their faces that they may be seen of men to fast verily I say unto you they have received their reward but you when you fast anoint your head and wash your face that you may not be seen of men to fast but of your father I'm sorry of your father who is in secret and your father who sees in secret shall recompense you now you know what our Lord is doing here that in this section of the Sermon on the Mount he is focusing upon the perversion of certain religious disciplines that were manifested by the scribes and the Pharisees first of all he dealt with the matter of prayer and he says therefore when I'm sorry when you do your alms when you engage in acts of benevolence verse 2 don't sound the trumpet before you then verse 5 when you pray don't be like the hypocrites and then in verse 16 when you fast assuming that the practice that the Pharisees had of their twice a week fast would to some degree

62:58 be practiced among his own or could be practiced in the future and so our Lord taking the occasion of correcting the abuses of giving of praying and of fasting manifested in the patterns of the Pharisees assumes that his disciples in perpetuity will be engaged in the giving of alms in praying and in some degree of fasting and so that's the major import of this particular passage and then the other passage where it is indisputable that our Lord mentions fasting is in Matthew chapter 9 and verse 15 verses 14 and 15 they come questioning our Lord why do we and the disciples I'm sorry why do we and the Pharisees often fast but your disciples do not fast and Jesus said unto them can the sons of the bride chamber mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them but the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them and then will they fast and here our Lord just makes a simple statement that fasting was not consistent with the presence of

64:20 the Lord Jesus with his disciples but a time was coming when he would leave them and the circumstances would be such that fasting would be in order under those altered circumstances that's basically what he says how much to fast when to fast there is no clear directive now with respect to prayer there is no question Luke 18 1 men ought always to pray and not to faint but he never says men ought always to fast when you fast the days will come when they will fast but you see it's not in the same category of explicit duty of prayer men ought always to pray and not to faint watch and pray he doesn't say watch fast and pray that ye enter not into temptation watch and pray that you enter not into temptation ask and it shall be given you seek and you shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you the duty to pray is far more explicit clear and unmistakably repeated in the teaching of our Lord than is a duty to fast and therefore to put them on the same level in my judgment is to disrupt the balance of holy scripture in the epistles there are only two references of indisputable textual nature 2 Corinthians 6 5 and 2 Corinthians 11 and verse 27 now Arrington Gingrich put that fasting in the

65:49 special category of circumstantial abstinence not necessarily connected with prayer now I'm not prepared to do that but I'm saying that some responsible handlers of the word of God would do so so when we take that and add to it that the example that we have of fasting in the scriptures Luke 2 37 we have the example of this godly woman who spent her time as a widow in prayer and fasting Luke 2 and verse 47 I'm sorry not verse 47 Luke 2 and verse 37 and she had been a widow even unto four score and four years who departed not for the temple worshipping with fastings and supplications night and day the significant thing is here's a woman in a special condition of extended widowhood in a special ministry of prayer in the temple and she is found fasting in conjunction with prayer fasting and supplication our Lord in the wilderness Matthew 4 verses 1 and 2 he was forty days and forty nights fasting Acts 13 2 and 3 as they're ministering to the Lord and fasting the spirit of God speaks and then they pray and they send forth the servants of God in Acts 14 23 when they appointed elders and they prayed with fasting they commended to the Lord on whom they believed

67:18 now you've exhausted the significant New Testament data unless I've missed the major passage we've exhausted the basic data of the New Testament but taking the whole testimony of the Old and the New Testament it is clear that there are times when fasting is found in a very natural way in conjunction with extended concentrated earnest seasons of prayer Daniel 9 and verse 3 Daniel seeks the Lord how well he tells us that this seeking of the Lord in this critical situation was a seeking of God verse 3 I set my face unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplication with fasting and sackcloth and ashes having come to understand that God had said that the captivity would last seventy years and concerned that in the outworking of those purposes of God there would be a moral congruity that there would be repentance leading to the favor of God that would bring about the restoration Daniel sets himself to seek by prayer and supplication with fasting and likewise in the call that goes out from the prophet Joel there is impending judgment God is going to send the army of the locusts and now he says yet even now turn unto me with fasting and mourning and weeping and rend your heart

68:45 and not your garments and then you have the incident in Acts chapter 9 verses 9 and 11 that indicate that in this situation where the apostle Paul has been arrested by the risen Christ he has gone without food verse 9 he was three days without sight and did neither eat or drink verse 11 the Lord said unto him arise and go to the street which is called straight and inquire in the house of Judas for one named Saul a man of Tarsus for behold he is praying and I bring the two verses together to show that the fasting though the word fasting is not used what fasting is is clearly described he was three days without sight and did neither eat nor drink well what's he doing waiting to get into some more receptive spiritual frame in some eastern mystic theology no he's praying he's giving himself to this concentrated intense season of prayer in the light of the great disruption that has come into his life by the grace of God and similarly with Acts 13 2 and 3 and Acts 14 23 the fasting is said to be in conjunction with prayer now what can we say in the light of that biblical material well I believe it is safe to say that if over a lengthy period precluding any serious physical condition that would not make it responsible to fast

70:15 if we do not find ourselves fasting we are either ignorant of the place of fasting indifferent to the benefit of fasting or perhaps unwilling for the demands of fasting and there I have to leave every man's conscience with God I know some people that in my judgment it would be physically irresponsible for them to fast they would be tempting God because of the physical conditions that they have there are others and I am pointing my finger at myself that I believe at times the unwillingness or the disincarnation to fast has been rooted in a kind of carnal indifference or an unwillingness for the demands that fasting may bring upon us beyond that I am not prepared to go to bind any man's conscience but to say there is sufficient biblical warrant to assert that fasting can be and in some circumstances ought to be a handmaiden to unusual seasons of ministerial prayer and what are those seasons for you when it moves into the ought only you and God will know and I am not prepared to be a lord over your conscience and I would warn you about letting one else become a lord over your conscience alright second thing I want to say is that there is abundant biblical warrant to condemn as abominable in God's sight fasting that is mechanical ascetic ostentatious

Fasting Proposition 2: Abundant Biblical Warrant to Condemn Corrupt Forms of Fasting

71:44 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 says to them behold in the day of your fast you find your own pleasure exact your labors you fast for strife contention etc here was a mechanical view of fasting similarly in Zechariah 7 4-7 you find similar language from the prophet Zechariah but then there is not only what I have called mechanical fasting there is the aesthetic which God flatly condemned in the scriptures Colossians chapter 2 these people that came along with their Gnostic theology with that Gnosticism was a very strict regimen of self-denial if you be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world why as though living in the world do you subject yourself to ordinances handle not no taste no touch

73:13 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 ostentatious fasting of the Pharisees they want to make it plain to everyone they were fasting they put on their sourest face and let their stubble grow you don't look too well today now the Lord says 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 anything of ostentation and the ostentation can be not only in physical appearance but in dropping little hints just come off for three days you know look at me

74:41 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 spirit and I have seen that with people I don't fast once a week look down the nose in judgmentalism it is the spirit of the Pharisee if God gives you grace to lay hold of him at the expense of normal patterns of eating and drinking those kinds will be too sacred to prostitute them as any kind of a club with which to beat others or a platform on which to try to parade yourself before God legal and judgmental and then of course hypocritical fasting is condemned you go back to the Isaiah passage not only was there a mechanical view wherefore have we fasted and you don't see us there was the idea that by trying to impress God and others with their fasting this could cover the wickedness for which God exposes them through the ministry of the prophet himself so there is abundant biblical warrant to condemn fasting from any

76:10 false and devious motives and then the third statement that I have made is there is no biblical warrant to assert that regular fasting is a Christian duty in general or a ministerial duty in particular that is the final to me balancing statement there is no biblical warrant to assert that regular fasting if you are to assert and to bind your own conscience and bind the conscience of others to regular fasting as a generic or specific ministerial duty from what passages of the word of God would you bind the conscience of people to regular fasting I would be at a loss to come up with text that could bind the conscience to regular fasting now that statement must be put against my second statement the first yeah the second statement there is the first statement there is sufficient warrant to assert that fasting can be and in some circumstances ought to be a handmaiden to unusual seasons of ministerial prayer but to take that and say therefore you must at least once a month you must at least once a week I have real problems with that when it comes to the data of holy scripture no biblical warrant to assert that regular fasting is a Christian duty in general or a ministerial duty in particular and I will have time to open that up for discussion I don't claim infallibility in my judgment on the biblical materials but as I've wrestled with them over the years and tried to state them

Fasting Proposition 3: No Biblical Warrant for Regular Fasting as a Universal Duty

77:39 I feel comfortable with what I've put in your notes and what I've set before you self-denial and self-control are constant duties I can prove that from the Bible if any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me Luke 9 and verse 23 I can bind my conscience and your conscience to daily cross bearing and constant self-denial I can bind your conscience to constant self-control the fruit of the spirit is self-control now in so far as self-denial and self-control mean that there are circumstances in your life in which you ought to fast you better fast with your prayers but am I prepared to tell you from the Bible and if you do not join fasting to your prayer at least once a week you're sinning once a month you're sinning once a year you're sinning I can't do that I cannot go beyond the scriptures you say but that leaves me up in the air yes it does it leaves you up in the air with your Bible beneath your feet and the Holy Ghost and the Lord who's promised to be your shepherd and to lead you in paths of righteousness and we would all like to have it wrapped up a bit more neatly I would love to have it I believe if there was something in the Bible that said thou shalt fast once a week I'd bind my conscience to that and say alright Lord and once a week I'll fast some of us sort of live on a partial fast all the time anyway just to keep our weight stable we barely consume enough calories

79:04 to keep ourselves alert so what's the big deal but is my conscience thus bound as I stand before you it is not and I've never been able to bind the conscience of another person self-control yes self-denial keeping under our body and not letting its appetites get out of control 1 Corinthians 9.27 yes but don't allow the self indulgent spirit of the age to keep you from being open to those times when you ought to fast in conjunction with your prayer now let me just say something briefly about pastoral intercessory prayer in relationship to your fellow elders certainly prayerfulness ought to mark your regular and extraordinary meetings with your fellow elders now here's where the circumstances will differ if you have a fellow elder who is also set apart to labor in the word and in doctrine then you ought to be able to find time to give yourself to intercessory prayer those have been very precious times in days past in my own experience when I've been able to pray with men who were also laboring full time but even if you're laboring with quote part-time lay elders you must make your times of prayer central to your regular meetings in which you give yourself to praying for specific needs among the flock of gods specific individuals and concerns so that you

Intercessory Prayer with Fellow Elders and Concluding Charge

80:33 as a body of overseers can have a measure of a good conscience when you look into the faces of your people that you are giving yourself to prayer as well as to the ministry of the word well brethren in conclusion I trust that as we come in a very real sense to the end of the whole course in pastoral theology this unit 7 and unit 8 deals with pastoral counseling the individual care of the shepherd I trust that each of you is determined by the grace of God to give due place to the nurture of your own walk with God the constant development of your own mind giving yourself to constantly seeking to be better preachers better overseers but may I urge you above all else that you seek by the grace of God to become mighty in prayer and as these other desires are kept alive in your heart by the spirit through the word they will find a God honoring expression in most cases in direct proportion to the maintenance of the spirit of prayer if you become an effective preacher to become less of a wrestler with God you'll be in a terribly dangerous place you may mistake God's blessing on your preaching for God's approbation upon the entirety of your ministry and to me there's no greater curse the ultimate expression of that is the many who will say in that day Lord Lord did we not and he will

82:01 say unto them depart from me I never knew you we need to load our consciences with own insight that the best way to assure that all our other ministerial labels are born of a right motive is to have them all rooted in intercessory prayer for our people then we can have reason to believe that what we select and what we deliver in our public ministry is really born out of a genuine concern for their spiritual well being may the Lord help us and may God help us as we pray for one another as we pray that we may continue in the way of holiness and in the way of intimate warm devotion to Christ and in increasing awareness of the magnitude of his love to us as we were reminded in the previous hour that we may pray for one another that we may become mighty in the place of prayer