Pastoral Intercessory Prayer, Part 1

Introduction: The Capstone of Pastoral Theology – Pastoral Prayer

0:03 Now in the examination of the weighty subject which I have described as the essential elements of effective pastoral oversight, we thus far traced out three major categories of thought. We've had the task described in its essence and in its prevailing disposition. Secondly, the major divisions of the task, and we had two subheadings, the duties pertaining to the corporate life of God's people, and then the duties pertaining to the individual needs of God's people, and that division, of course, was covered in your intercession

0:41 section on pastoral counseling. And then in the last couple of lectures, we dealt in the third place with the normal or the ideal framework for the administration of the task of oversight, and we saw in our study of the Scriptures that that normal or ideal framework is one in which we share the work of oversight with fellow elders serving with us on a basis of ecclesiastical parity, but with realistic functional diversity, and also with the aid of official servants of the church and of the eldership called deacons. Now today,

1:23 and continuing on to our final lecture next week, we take up the fourth and final category under the heading of Effective Pastoral Oversight. We've looked at the task described, the major divisions of the task, the ideal framework for the task, and now fourthly, the crowning activity in conjunction with the task both of preaching and oversight. The crowning activity in conjunction with the task of both preaching and oversight, and then you can put a dash,

2:02 pastoral prayer. The crowning activity in conjunction with the task of both preaching and oversight, pastoral prayer. In other words, what we consider today and next week is to be regarded as a capstone of the entire course in pastoral theology. We have considered the pastor as an official teacher and preacher to the flock of God. We've considered the pastor as an official

2:34 considered the pastor as an overseer, a governor, a leader in the midst of the flock, and now we consider him as an intercessor on behalf of his flock. In all of the previous lectures, as the various duties and difficulties and ministerial responsibilities have been opened up before you, I have emphasized again and again our utter dependence upon the Lord, and therefore our constant need of fresh supplies of the Holy Spirit, supplies of the Spirit given

3:13 in answer to our prayers. And so I hope that the entire course has had as one of its recurring notes the necessity of eminent prayerfulness in all facets of ministerial labor. Furthermore, in laying the foundation for all ministerial usefulness in the life of the minister himself, I pressed upon you the necessity for attaining and maintaining at all costs both the habit and the spirit of secret prayer. However, the focus of our concern in these last two lectures,

Distinguishing Personal Devotional Prayer from Pastoral Intercession

3:56 today and, God willing, next week, while assuming the previous perspectives, has to do with a more limited and more specific dimension of the prayer life of the servant of God. And that more special dimension and limited perspective is the specific, planned, disciplined labor of pastoral prayer or ministerial intercession. Now, I'm very conscious of the fact that it would be both unscriptural and contrary to experience to attempt an air-tight compartmentalization of

4:38 this duty. There will always be in the experience of a true man of God who is in a state of spiritual health an interpenetration of prayer in conjunction with the nurture of his own inner life and prayer for the advancement of the life of God in the soul. It is impossible for a minister to be in any kind of state that could be called spiritually healthy and not experience this interpenetration of personal devotional prayerfulness and prayerfulness

5:18 for his people. However, there certainly is a broad and real distinction between the prayers which have as their primary intention the spiritual health of God and the spiritual health of his people. The nurture of our own hearts and prayer which has as its primary intention and focus the advancement of grace in the hearts of our people. And we find a parallel with respect to the reading of the word.

5:46 Though there is an interpenetration between our reading of the word for the nurture of our own souls and our reading of the word for the ultimate nurture of the souls of our people, and the two can never be part of the same. The two can never be part of the same. The two can never be part of the same. The two can never be part of the same. The two can never be part of the same. The two can never be part of the

6:00 same. The two can never be part of the same. The two can never be part of the same. The two can never be part of the same. The two can never be part of the same. The two can never be part of the same. The two can never be part of the

6:02 same. The two can never be part of the same. The two can never be part of the same. The two can never be part of the same. The two can never be part of the same. The two can never be part of the same. The two can never be part of the

6:04 same. The two can never be part of the same. The two can never be part of the same. The two can never be part of the coming to the Word of God primarily and with this self-conscious concern being, Lord, feed my own soul, and coming to the Word seeking to prepare food for the souls of our people.

6:22 And so we are to consider together that dimension of prayer responsibility which has as its primary intention the nurturing of the life of God in the souls of our people in contrast to prayer which has as its primary intention the nurturing of the life of God in our own souls. And brethren, I confess that as I seek to address myself to this subject, I do so fully conscious and even painfully aware of my own soul and of the life of God. Of my own sins and failures, my own inconstancy in the performance of this duty,

Establishing the Duty of Ministerial Intercession: The Pivotal Text (Acts 6:4)

7:06 and yet I must set the duty before you because it is a duty clearly taught in the Word of God. Now in opening up then this subject of ministerial prayer as the great capstone duty over all of our ministerial responsibilities, I will first of all establish the duty, the duty of ministerial intercession from the Word of God. And then secondly, describe the dominant concerns of ministerial intercession, and then God willing next week we'll take up the hindrances to ministerial intercession,

7:48 and then finally consider some practical suggestions for the fulfillment of the duty of ministerial intercession. All right, first of all then this morning, I want to establish the duty of ministerial intercession. Now remember what I'm talking about now. Not seeking to establish the duty of prayerfulness in general, men ought always to pray and not to faint, Luke 18.1,

8:13 but the duty of ministerial intercession. That is, intercession that has as its explicit focus and concern the blessing of God upon the people of God, the people of God, in conjunction with our ministerial labors. And I'll give you three lines of biblical testimony. The first is what I'm calling the pivotal text, the second will be the general example of spiritual leadership in the Old and New Testaments, and then thirdly, the supreme example of our Lord Jesus Christ.

8:49 All right, we establish then the duty of ministerial intercession, first of all, from the pivotal text. And I hope instinctively, your minds and if you've got a Bible in front of you, your fingers are already turning to that pivotal text, Acts chapter 6. Now last week we looked at this text in conjunction with the establishment of the diaconate as a distinct functioning body of office bearers in the church. We look at the text today in conjunction with establishing the duty of ministerial intercession.

9:27 Now you'll remember the basic problem is given to us beginning in chapter 4, verses 32 to 35, and in chapter 5 and verse 1, that there was this great growth in the church at Jerusalem. And that growth involved the conversion of widows, both Grecian and Hebrew widows. And you remember the problem in seeking to care for these widows, a situation came to pass which the apostles felt was an abnormality. It was their judgment, according to chapter 6 and verse 2,

10:09 that it was not fitting that they should forsake the word of God and serve tables. Lenski's translation is as follows. It does not please us that we, having forsaken the word of God, keep ministering to tables. Now that word forsake, katalipo, is a very strong word.

10:33 It's used in Matthew 19 and verse 5 and again in Luke 5 and verse 28. Speaking of Levi, he forsook all and he followed him. So the apostles sensed that there was an actual forsaking, if not absolutely, certainly, relatively speaking, in terms of their previous pattern of activity, they felt there was a forsaking already taking place with respect to the ministry of the word. And then they offer this proposed solution, as we noted it in our previous lecture from verse 3, and it all has this end in view.

11:17 But we will continue steadfastly in prayer and in the ministry, and in the ministry of the word. And here we have the definitive determination of the apostles, and it was a resolution to continue in two fundamental activities. And that word continue is the same one used in Acts 2.42.

11:42 These continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and prayer. And when used with the dative of a specific thing, it means to busy oneself with, to be engaged in, to be devoted to. Pros cartereo. And I'm speaking it slowly so you can write it down.

12:06 Pros cartereo. It's used here and in Acts 1.14, and in Romans 12.12, and Colossians 4.2 in conjunction with prayer.

12:21 So you have a busying oneself, engaging in, being devoted to prayer and to the ministry of the word. Now the interesting thing as we look at the passage is this, that instead of time and energy being spent in table service, they would devote themselves entirely to the activity of prayer and the ministry of the word. And in the minds of the apostles, these two things, these two things were inseparably linked. Although in verse 2 they only mention forsaking the word,

13:03 in their minds there was no ministry of the word forsaken that was not also joined with an erosion of involvement in prayer. So in the fuller statement in verse 4, after setting forth the proposal, they say, we will continue steadfastly in prayer and in the ministry of the word. So that they set for us the great pattern that those who would be leaders in Christ's church in the ministry of the word must be those who give themselves to ministerial prayer, that is prayer that is specifically geared towards

13:46 the ministry of the word and found in conjunction with that ministry. So when we turn to 1 Timothy 5.17 and read that the elders who rule well are worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and in doctrine, we must never think of that laboring in the word and in doctrine apart from the category of Acts 6, Acts 6 and verse 4. It is a laboring in the word and in doctrine that has joined to it this addiction to the ministry of prayer along with the word.

14:27 Now here again, Owen speaks so perceptively as he often does on matters technical as well as matters experimental, and in volume 16 and page 77, a section in which he is expounding the especial duty of pastors of churches, he gives as duty number one, this, the first and principal duty of a pastor is to feed the flock by diligent preaching of the word. That's on page 74. Now then, on page 77, the second duty of a pastor toward his flock

15:08 is continual fervent prayer for them. And then he lists a number of texts, some of which we'll consider subsequently, from the Old and the New Testaments, but there's only one text that he actually writes out in this paragraph, and it's Acts 6, 4. We will give ourselves continually to prayer. Then he comments, Without this, no man can or doth preach to them as he ought, nor perform any other duty of his pastoral office.

15:47 From hence may any man, take the best measure of the discharge of his duty toward his flock. He that doth constantly, diligently, fervently pray for them, will have a testimony in himself of his own sincerity in the discharge of all other pastoral duties, nor can he voluntarily omit or neglect any of them. And as for those who, who are negligent therein, that is, in giving themselves to prayer, be their pains, labor, and travail in other duties never so great,

16:31 they may be influenced from other reasons, and so give no evidence of sincerity in the discharge of their office. In this constant prayer for the church, which is so incumbent on all pastors as that whatever is done without it is of no esteem in the sight of Jesus Christ. You see his point? Unless we can have the testimony in our own breast that all of our other outward ministerial duties have as their foundational element as that which permeates them all, giving ourselves to prayer, he says,

17:16 the motives for all the other duties are suspect. And he understood this great principle of the necessity of ministerial prayer, and he rested down primarily upon this very pivotal text that I have set before you. And then quaint old Matthew Henry commenting on this text, and this is the six-volume set, page 71 of the Commentary of Acts, listen to Matthew Henry's words to us. What is the great business of gospel ministers?

17:56 To give themselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word. They must still be either fitting and furnishing themselves for those services or employing themselves in them, either publicly or privately, in the stated times or out of them. They must be God's mouth to the people in the ministry of the word and the people's mouth to God in prayer. In order to the conviction and conversion of sinners and the edification and consolation of saints, we must not only offer up our prayers for them, but we must minister the word to them,

18:40 seconding our prayers with our endeavors in the use of our appointed means. Nor must we only minister the word to them, but we must pray for them, that it may be effectual, for God's grace can do all without our preaching. But our preaching can do nothing without God's grace. The apostles were endued with extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost, tongues and miracles, and yet that to which they gave themselves continually was preaching and praying, by which they might edify the church.

19:19 And those ministers, without doubt, are the successors of the apostles, not in the plenitude of their apostolic power , but in the best and most excellent of apostolical works, who give themselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word. And such Christ will always be with, even to the end of the world. And then in a booklet that I hope eventually to have reprinted, Intercessory Prayer, a Ministerial Task, by Eugene Bradford, at least one time Executive Secretary of Westminster Theological Seminary,

20:03 and this was printed in the Westminster Journal, he quotes from John Smith, one of the ministers of Campleton, who wrote in 1808, Prayer is the life and soul of the sacred function. Without it we can expect no success upon our ministry. Without it our best instructions are barren and our most painful labors idle. Before we can strike terror into those who break the law, we must first, like Moses, spend much time with God in retirement.

20:39 Prayer often gains a success to little talents, while the greatest without it are useless or pernicious. A minister who is not a man of piety and prayer, whatever his other talents may be, cannot be called a servant of God, but rather a servant of Satan, chosen by him for the same reason that he chose the serpent of old, because he was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. What a monster! Oh, God, must that minister of religion be, that dispenser of religion, that dispenser of the ordinances of the gospel, that intercessor between God and his people,

21:24 that reconciler of man to his Maker, if he himself is not a man of prayer? As we, my brethren, are ministers of reconciliation between God and man, prayer is one of our principal duties. God often grants the grace indeed for the people to the prayers of the minister. Of that minister who, like one of the angels who ascended and descended on Jacob's ladder, not only pleads the cause of God with the people, but the cause of the people with God.

22:02 It is our business to lay before him constantly all the needs of those of whom we have charge. It is our part to lament before him their sins, those sins which our care and zeal cannot prevent nor remove. It is our part to solicit for them the riches of his mercy and to deprecate his deserved indignation. It is ours to pray that the sinner may be converted, the saint may be confirmed, the weak may be strengthened, the diffident encouraged, and the presumptuous alarmed.

22:38 The more numerous the wants and sins of our people are, the more frequent and fervent should our prayers be on their behalf. Not only their general state, but their particular cases ought to be spread by us before the throne and to be recommended, pleaded, and earnestly urged before the Father of mercies. And as long as Acts 6 and verse 4 stands in the word of God, I say the duty of ministerial prayer is clearly, unmistakably set before us. If there is any justification

23:20 for our not engaging in a normal means of employment, it is that we may give ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. And you see the apostles envisioned no diaconal ministry in the word that was not conjoined with an equal emphasis upon prayer. But then there is a second line of evidence establishing the duty of ministerial prayer or pastoral intercession, and it's what I'm calling the general example of spiritual leadership in the Old and the New Testaments. Now let me first of all flush out the idea, then we'll look at some Old Testament examples and some new.

Establishing the Duty: General Example of Spiritual Leadership (Old Testament)

24:03 The basic idea is this, that wherever God describes for us in any detail a man whom He raised up to give leadership to His people, He underscores for us their eminent prayerfulness, not just with respect to their inner devotional lives. In fact, very little is said about that dimension of their prayer experience in many of the accounts, but rather God has emphasized prayer in conjunction with their official tasks, whether it's a king in the administration of the kingdom, a prophet in carrying out the prophetic office,

24:46 whether it is a man of God placed in a strategic place of leadership, the record of their prayerfulness is most frequently found in conjunction with their official labors. And therefore I say God is giving to us an example of the context in which spiritual leadership is to be carried forth, a context of eminent prayer in conjunction with the responsibilities of that leadership, in contrast to, eminent prayerfulness for the nurture of the soul of the leader himself. And therefore I believe it is justifiable to use the passages in this way.

25:31 If we were thinking simply of an intercessor seeking to plead with God for the aversion, for the avoiding of judgment, what greater example of eminent prayerfulness do we find than that of Abraham in that moving passage in Genesis 18.60 and following, where he intercedes for God to spare the cities of the plains. We just read through that in our own family worship and I was struck again at Abraham's chastened but sanctified boldness in arguing with God, sitting down as it were and bargaining with God

26:15 and adjusting the terms and someone has said we wonder what would have happened if he brought the terms down to one. Well in a sense God did because you remember he did not destroy the righteous and the just and it was in a very real sense I am convinced Abraham's prayers that delivered Lot because it was evident Lot didn't have much desire to leave there. God practically had to drag him out kicking and screaming and he was brought out in answer to the prayers of godly Abraham. And then of course Moses the great towering figure of the Old Testament just some of these references we don't have time to read them but I want you to have them in your notes.

26:56 Exodus 32.7-14 that moving section in which Moses refuses as it were to let God destroy the people pleads the honor of God's name pleads his covenant promises on behalf of the people. Numbers 11.1-12 Numbers 11.1-3

27:17 Numbers 11.1-3 Numbers 21.6-9 Numbers 21.6-9 Numbers 21.6-9

27:22 Numbers 21.6-9 Numbers 21.6-9 Numbers 27.15-23 Numbers 27.15-23

27:28 Numbers 27.15-23 Numbers 27.15-23 Then you have that beautiful example of Joshua and Joshua 7 Joshua 7 The armies have been defeated before the relatively small city of Ai Joshua with the elders falls upon his face and cries to God hears ministerial prayer the cause of God has come to a hiatus an impasse and the man of God goes down on his face and cries to God why? and begins that beautiful engagement in divine argument until God speaks and gives him direction and then godly Samuel you remember even with reference to that pathetic character

28:13 Saul says in 1 Samuel 12.13 God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for thee and then as one reads the account of the godly kings Hezekiah and Isaiah in both Kings and Chronicles and I've been struck with this since that's been the area of my own Old Testament devotional reading recently how again and again mighty deliverances on behalf of the people over whom they reigned were wrought in answer to prayer and of course you have that sad commentary in 2 Chronicles 26.5 which almost becomes an index

28:57 for other kings as well 2 Chronicles chapter 26 and verse 5 speaking of Uzziah and he set himself to seek God in the days of Zechariah who had understanding in the vision of God and as long as he sought the Lord God met him and made him to prosper and you see the prospering was with respect to his righteous reign but then the tragedy the tragedy of verse 16 but when he was strong his heart was lifted up then he with the people

29:40 are brought into a period of declension because he was no longer eminently a man of prayer we see this in the lives of the prophets Elijah Elisha Isaiah and we have the warrant of James 5 to take the prophets for an example yes of suffering but also James picks out the eminent prayerfulness of Elijah man of like passions who prayed and to these we add such leaders as Daniel Ezra and Nehemiah in the most lengthy discourses recorded are their prayers Daniel 9 Ezra 9

30:25 Nehemiah 9 these men who were used of God to bring about great restoration to the people of God we see that the tap roots of their usefulness was their eminent prayerfulness and of course to these we could add Solomon in his early days of the glory of the kingdom and the record of his prayers so I say brethren there is an overall pattern that emerges from the Old Testament teaching on leadership amongst God's people and it is this that those put in a place of leadership have a distinct and peculiar responsibility to give themselves to intercessory prayer

Establishing the Duty: General Example of Spiritual Leadership (New Testament)

31:10 in conjunction with the sphere of their God appointed leadership and then we find the same pattern when we turn to the New Testament and of course the great example is the Apostle Paul since we have so much of his writing in all of his epistles we find the records of distinct ministerial and pastoral prayer and I'll give you just the references again in the interest of time I'll not read all of them perhaps only quote one or two of them as a sample Romans 1 9 to 11 he can say to the Romans that he remembers them continually in his prayers

31:54 Ephesians 1 15 and following for this cause I bow my knees unto the Father it's pastoral prayer he's not praying for anything for himself but he's praying for the people at Ephesus Ephesians 3 14 and following a similar record of pastoral prayer Philippians chapter 1 and verse 3 Philippians 1 9 to 11 another pastoral prayer that they might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding that they may approve the things that are excellent nothing about the nurture of his own soul it's pastoral prayer

32:38 for his beloved Philippian Christians Colossians chapter 1 verse 3 Colossians 1 and verse 3 and then Colossians 1 9 and following for this cause we make request for you again wholly outside of prayer for himself pastoral prayer for the church at Colossae 1 Thessalonians 3 9 and 10 pastoral prayer for the church of the Thessalonians night and day praying and then pastoral prayer for his fellow workers

33:21 1 Timothy 1 verses 3 and 4 and sometimes it breaks out into language that's nothing short of moving in its intensity Galatians 4 19 my little children of whom I travail again in birth till Christ be formed in you that's pastoral prayer travailing he said his spiritual exercise was like that of a mother on a birthing table on a birthing bench travailing that Christ might be formed in them did he write a white hot letter did he carefully and powerfully and analytically and scripturally flay as it were the heresy

34:05 of the Galatian heretics of those Judaizers yes he did that but he accompanied that ministry of the word with travailing prayer that Christ would be formed in them let me state it in a stark way in a blunt way in a way that I hope will make it stick he did not have confidence that even his inspired epistle would effect the change apart from those dynamics of the spirit given in answer to prayer and then of course his moving language in Romans 9 1 and 10 1 he speaks of his great sorrow his continual heaviness

34:48 that finds expression in prayer to God here is perhaps one of the clearest examples of explicit prayer for the unconverted but not only do we have in the New Testament the Apostle Paul is the great example of the duty of pastoral or ministerial prayer we have what I think is perhaps the classic passage outside of these from the Apostle Paul in which Paul describes that dear man of God Epaphras we don't know if he was a preacher we don't know if he was a very able preacher

35:31 but oh if God could say this of us as was said of Epaphras in Colossians chapter 4 this is what Paul says in tribute to this man Colossians chapter 4 a model of ministerial prayer verse 12 Epaphras who is one of you a servant of Christ Jesus salutes you always striving for you in his prayers that you may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God for I bear him witness that he has much labor for you

36:14 and for them in Laodicea and for them in Hierapolis here is this man who was a laborer in the great enterprise of pastoral and ministerial intercession and supplication always striving in his prayers that the Colossians would stand perfect and fully assured in the will of God there was intensity of prayer there was constancy of prayer and then we are given a hint as to the substance of his prayer that they would stand perfect and fully assured in the will of God so there is then the pattern of Old Testament leadership

Establishing the Duty: The Supreme Example of Christ

36:57 these New Testament examples but then there is this third major bulk of biblical testimony our explicit text Acts 6-4 the pattern of leadership Old and New Testament thirdly our supreme example and pattern the Lord Jesus Christ himself and whether we view him in the days of his humiliation or in his present abiding state of exaltation our Lord is eminently and again I say it reverently he is eminently the model of pastoral prayer he is the model of ministerial intercession it's a beautiful section

37:41 in Hendrickson's commentary in the Gospel of Luke pages 217 and 218 in which he gathers together collates all of the instances of our Lord's prayerfulness as they come to us in the Gospel record it's the bottom of page 217 he's commenting of course on the passage in Luke chapter 3 in which Luke alone tells us that at his baptism Jesus was praying the Spirit came upon him in the act of praying and Jesus also was baptized and was praying and then picking up that thread of thought Hendrickson collates

38:25 all of the recorded instances of our Lord's prayers and many of them not all of them but many of them are what we would call ministerial prayer Peter Satan has desired to sift you as wheat but I have prayed for you that your faith fail not that's ministerial prayer the record of his praying all night before the selection of the twelve is most likely a record of ministerial prayer in conjunction with wisdom and discernment in the selection of these leaders and so there are many of the passages that fall within the framework of what we could justly call ministerial prayer

39:10 but not only is this true of him in the day and state of his humiliation it is true of him in the abiding state of his exaltation Hebrews 7.25 wherefore he is able to save to the uttermost those that come unto God by him seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them in one sense we can say that our Lord's predominant activity is one of ministerial pastoral intercession for his flock who is he that condemneth it is Christ that died yea rather that is risen from the dead who is at the right hand of God

39:53 who also makes intercession for us Romans 8 and verse 32 and so bringing together these three lines of evidence surely brethren if our minds are at all susceptible to the pressure of scripture we see that we have a clearly defined duty of ministerial intercession and pastoral prayer not only the responsibility to nurture our own souls by means of secret prayer but prayer that is focused and concentrated upon the discharge of our distinctive functions as teachers and preachers

40:35 and overseers of the flock of God and where a man orthodox reformed and even in his outward life a relatively godly man does not engage in this duty with some degree of constancy I fear the indictment of Jeremiah 10.21 can be written over such a ministry may God grant that this text will never be true of us for the shepherds are become brutish and have not inquired of the Lord therefore they have not prospered

41:16 and all their flocks are scattered and I am convinced that if the true story were to be told that even in many a relationship even in many a reformed church with an orthodox ministry the flock has been scattered and there has been little prospering in growth in mutual love and true Christ-like godliness and holy zeal and advancement and numerical growth why? because the shepherds have not inquired of Jehovah there has been a carnal confidence in the means of the ministry of the word

Dominant Concerns of Ministerial Intercession: Success of the Word

41:59 that has not been attended with giving oneself to prayer now having established I trust the duty of ministerial prayer let me in the second place bring into focus the dominant concerns of ministerial intercession or pastoral prayer now again brethren I've tried to choose my words carefully I did not say the exclusive concerns but the dominant concerns of ministerial intercession when you set yourself to get on your knees to pray not for the nurture of your own soul

42:44 not primarily for the nurture of the soul of your wife and the well-being of your children but you are now upon your face to take the place of an intercessor on behalf of the flock of God you're a Moses going into the presence of God on behalf of your people what ought to be the dominant concerns of ministerial intercession well in a sense the answer to that would demand an exposition of all of the recorded ministerial prayers in the Bible we could even expand it by saying everything that is mandated in the perceptual portions of the word of God for the people of God

43:28 becomes a legitimate concern of prayer and intercession for the man of God and so we cannot narrow it down but let me suggest that Owen has very perceptively reduced the major concerns for ministerial intercession on page 78 and following in volume 16 and he reduces them under the following heads what are we to pray for when we engage in this duty of ministerial intercession? let me give you his heads because I can't improve upon them number one we're to pray for the success of the word

44:12 unto all the blessed ends of it among our people the success of the word unto all the blessed ends of it among our people Owen goes on to write these are no less than the improvement and strengthening of all their graces the direction of all their duties their edification in faith and love with the entire conduct of their souls in the life of God unto the enjoyment of him you see how he's distilled many of the pastoral prayers in Ephesians 1, Colossians 1, Philippians 1 he brings all of that together in these words

44:56 the improvement and strengthening of all their graces this I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and discernment the eyes of the understanding may be enlightened under that terminology all of the language of those prayers can be ranged the improvement and strengthening of all their graces the direction of all their duties this I pray that your love may abound the duty of loving one another their edification in faith and love with the entire conduct of their souls in the life of God unto the enjoyment of him to preach the word therefore and not to follow it with constant and fervent prayer for its success

45:41 is to disbelieve in its use neglect its end and to cast away the seed of the gospel at random to preach the word and not to follow it with constant and fervent prayer for its success is to disbelieve its use neglect its end neglect its end and to cast away the seed of the gospel at random so one great block of legitimate focus in our ministerial intercession in pastoral prayer should be the success of the word both before we preach and after we preach and brethren I confess it is that latter part

46:26 where my conscience smites me the most because so often our mental and physical and spiritual energies are so depleted in the prayer preceding the ministry of the word and in the dispensing of those energies in the actual proclamation of the word that to go back home on a Lord's day evening and fall upon one's knees and engage in the agony of intercession is very very taxing upon poor frail humanity yet as my dear friend Pastor Reisinger has said on more than one occasion when we've been together in ministry and I've preached or he's preached and he said brother

Dominant Concerns: Temptations, Individual States, and Christ's Presence

47:10 let's pray it's a sin to preach and not to pray those words have been etched upon my mind and heart but alas how much my light exceeds my practice then he says the second category of major concern in ministerial prayer is this unto the temptations that the church is generally exposed unto in other words praying for the peculiar temptations to which the church is exposed these vary greatly according to the outward circumstances of things the temptations in general that accompany a state of outward peace

47:54 and tranquility are of another nature than those that attend a time of trouble persecution distress and poverty and so it is as unto other occasions in circumstances these the pastors of churches ought diligently to consider looking on them as the means and ways whereby churches have been ruined and the souls of many lost forever with respect unto them therefore ought their prayers for the church to be fervent if your people for the most part are employed and doing well in their employment and God is blessing them materially then you certainly have enough acquaintance with the Bible to know the peculiar dangers of material blessing

48:39 God warns of it in the old covenant he says when you come into the land and obey me and I bless you with material blessings beware lest your heart be lifted up and you forget the Lord and go a whoring after other gods surely we know enough of our Bibles to know that riches and the cares of this life and the lust of other things enter in and they choke the word therefore our pastoral prayers should take their direction from the present state of the flock and we ought to be pleading Lord in a season of prosperity keep our people from becoming subtle idolaters keep them from trusting in the uncertainty of riches keep them from having their riches turn their hearts away from you

49:23 and being the occasion of their being lifted up in pride and if God brings them through a period of material privation then they are exposed to the temptation to question God His goodness His love they are tempted to be like Job's wife curse God and die she says to Job well recognizing that we need to pray accordingly that's the point that Owen is making not only to pray for the success of the word in general but to pray for the specific general state of the flock in the light of its present and ongoing and often changing overall climate of existence that ought to be one of the dominant concerns

50:08 and focal points of ministerial intercession and then he says thirdly the especial state and condition of all the members so far as it is known unto them that is known unto the pastors and we could put that in modern language and simply say the peculiar spiritual state of each member of the flock there may be some people there may be some of them who are spiritually sick and diseased tempted afflicted be misted and an old quaint word be misted they've entered into a time when they're in a fog don't know where they are they are be misted wandering out of the way surprised in sins

50:53 and miscarriages that is miscarriages of spiritual intention disconsolate and troubled in spirit in a peculiar manner the remembrance of them always all ought to abide with them that is the pastors and continually called over in their daily pastoral supplications in other words ministerial intercession must be personal and pointed and grow out of an intimate acquaintance with the flock of God now that does not mean that if you have a large flock you'll be able to pray for every one of them in that kind of personal way every day but you ought to have a pattern of praying through

51:37 the membership list praying through a church directory and not using it as some kind of protestant rosary in which you merely name the names that come before you but think of their state and if as you pray and say well I'm really not sure what their state is then that's a call for you to take the initiative to do something to make sure you do know what their state is and I have found again and again that seeking to pray for the individual needs of the flock of God is the very thing that has driven me to seek out a sheep and to inquire as to his true state and condition and then fourthly Owen suggests

52:20 that ministerial prayer ought to have reference to the presence of Christ in the assemblies of the church pleading for the manifest felt presence of Christ in our stated meetings would be our language let me read it in Owen's language unto the presence of Christ in the assemblies of the church with all the blessed evidences and testimonies of it with all the blessed evidences and testimonies of it this is that alone oh hear Owen this is no charismatic this is no Pentecostal this is that alone which gives life and power

53:04 unto all churches and all church assemblies without which all outward order and forms of divine worship in them are but a dead carcass that's Owen now this presence of Christ in the assemblies of his church is by his spirit accompanying all ordinances of worship with a gracious divine efficacy evidencing itself by blessed operations on the minds and hearts of the congregation this our pastors of churches continually to pray for and they will do so who understand that all the success

53:49 of their labors and all the acceptance of the church with God in their duties do depend hereon oh would to God that every single reformed pastor would believe that if the presence of Christ does not come all is but a dead carcass and I hear reformed ministers bemoaning the fact that they lose people to the charismatics and lose people to shallow evangelical churches well some of it no doubt is the perversity of the hearts of those who we read about in John 6 who cannot take hard sayings and they want their ears to be tickled and I have no doubt that many defect

54:33 because they are disciples only in name but on the other hand I wonder I wonder if some defect because they simply can't feed upon a carcass their hearts are hungry for the felt presence of Christ and though they are running to that which on the surface may seem to be his felt presence only to find that that's a mirage and that all of the hoopla is just that religious hoopla could it be the very reason they run is because there is not that experience of his felt presence and I testify to God's praise when I'm asked in pastors conferences do you lose people to the charismatics I say no

55:18 we gain them from them we have no fewer than about 25 ex-tongue speakers in our own assembly and in many cases that which brought them was they realized that there was just the shell of life and the semblance of life but no real substance of life amidst the hoopla and God brought them in they sense Christ was truly present in the midst of his people in this place the most cherished blessing we have in this place is the regular presence of Christ in our stated meetings it's the most precious possession we have and therefore we ought to cherish it and plead for it

Dominant Concerns: Preservation in Faith and Responding to Crises

56:01 in our ministerial prayers and then in the fifth place Owen says the dominant concerns of our prayers should be this the preservation of our people in faith in faith love and fruitfulness with all the duties that belong unto them and then he puts an et cetera their preservation in faith love and fruitfulness and surely brethren we could add to the list I'm quite confident but those five categories do indeed comprise a great sweep of the dominant concerns

56:46 of ministerial instruction and then he concludes with this word of exhortation it were much to be desired it were much to be desired that all those who take upon them this pastoral office did well consider and understand how great and necessary a part of their work and duty doth consist in their continual fervent prayer for their flocks for besides that it is the only instituted way whereby they may by virtue of their office bless their congregations so they will find their hearts and minds in and by the discharge

57:31 of it more and more filled with love and engaged with diligence unto all other duties of their office and excited unto the exercise of all grace toward the whole church on all occasions and where any are negligent therein there is no duty which they perform towards the church but it is influenced with false considerations and will not hold weight in the balance of the sanctuary those are searching words they come from the spirit of the great bulk of biblical testimony relative

58:15 to this responsibility so then what are the dominant concerns of many ministerial intercession these matters that have been set before us by Owen and then of course we might want to add to that another basic category and it's what I would call any immediate crises in the life of God's people surely these ought to form a great part of our ministerial intercession any immediate crises in the lives of God's people it would be unthinkable for a pastor of this flock not to have in almost every prayer he prayed over the past couple of weeks some focused intercession

59:00 for the consolations of grace to come upon the Denzel family now it would also be unnatural that that same concentration should go on for six months because there are others who will be brought through a dark valley and whose needs will have to take the central place in the heart of a man of God and so we must be sensitive to those crises and seek to respond by the direction of the spirit of God to those crises and reflect that response in the focal point of our prayers now I wish that I could give you a lot by way of bibliography in terms of materials that are helpful in setting forth both the duty and the manner of performing

59:44 the duty of ministerial intercession but I'm afraid I cannot I mentioned this book by the author in this book by Eugene Bradford Intercessory Prayer which was originally printed in the Westminster Theological Journal and hopefully we'll be able to get permission to get a reprint of this it's an excellent excellent essay and I've deliberately not marked it up thinking it might be the only one I can get my hands on and we may have to use it for an offset copy but then some of you will remember the very powerful entry called Employing All Prayer in the Ministry he brought that at the opening

60:29 of the academy some years ago and that has the code number CH35 and it's a wonderful example of the way prayer was operative in the ministry of one of the ancient kings in Israel in a time of crisis and he extrapolates many helpful principles for ministerial prayer now for prayer in general of course there are a number of treatises and you'll become acquainted with those you have E.M. Bounds has some excellent material the theology out of which Bounds works at times would leave something to be desired for us but E.M.

61:14 Bounds power through prayer has been used of God mightily in the lives of many with regard to ministerial prayer and I would like to ask you to take a moment to listen to the words of E.M. Bounds and to listen to the words of E.M.

61:48 Bounds and to listen