# Intercessory Prayer

Key Passage: Exodus 32
Date: June 7, 2024

Turn your Bibles, if you would, to Exodus chapter 32 tonight, Exodus chapter 32. I was thinking about the little quote you’ve heard us say around here: those that the world cannot change are those that end up changing the world. This is not popular—to be in church on a Wednesday night, especially during December. But you’re not letting the world change you. Praise the Lord. I appreciate people like you.

That is awesome. It seems we sometimes start off a little low, and then they just kind of trickle in. They keep trickling in. We’ll be all right pretty soon here. I’m glad you’re saying that. We’ve got more slipping in. Look at this here. That’s a good deal. We’ll start servicing in about five more minutes; we’ll have more people. I’m glad they’re trickling in. Praise the Lord for it. We’re glad to see them. That’s great.

And amen for Exodus chapter 32. We’ve been studying the life of Moses for over a year now. We’re to the point where last week we talked about when Moses went up on the mount. He had been up there several times, about six times at this point. Remember it took a while when he went up there. We read about a fellow that did that in our day and time; Mount Sinai took him four hours. There are trails and guides and everything nowadays. Can you imagine Moses? He was over 80 years old, and how long it took him to get up without trails and all that? They spent a lot of time here. And he goes up this time.

And he stays 40 days and 49th. He’s getting the Ten Commandments. God had written this time; he wrote them out with his fingers. I want to see that when I get to heaven. I’m left-handed, you know; I’ve lost fingers, but I couldn’t write them when I had all my fingers. I just care; I want to see God’s handwriting on those original ones. Moses broke. We haven’t got that yet, but I want to see that, the handwriting of the Lord.

But anyway, Moses was up there getting that. The people, remember before, at the beginning, they had said, “Lord, whatever, we haven’t even seen the law, but we’ll do it. We’ll do whatever you say.” They just had a great spirit, great attitude, and were ready to go. They hadn’t even seen the law yet. “All right, we’ll obey it.” And now, because of a little delay, they just went out there on the deep end. They got demanding. Remember they went to Aaron? They don’t even say, “Hey, Aaron,” what do they say? “Up! Make us some golden calves,” you know. They’re just demanding, “Make us some golden calves. I got that from Egypt,” and they…

They said, “This Moses”—like they didn’t even know Moses, and he’s the one God used to bring them out of that. Then they forgot all about God. Didn’t they say, “Moses brought us out”? No, God brought you out. God used Moses. Moses couldn’t split the Red Sea and all those plagues and all that. But they just kind of got impatient and went crazy. We just last week talked about impatience. Don’t let that get you.

Now we’re going a little bit, the next couple of verses, and God’s talking to Moses about what all. Moses is still up; he hadn’t come down yet. God’s telling him about Moses’ people. I mean, these people are out there. God is hot. I use that word on purpose. He’s mad. The Bible will use that word “hot” in just a minute here. I want you to see what Moses does. That’s pretty amazing. Maybe one of the greatest examples of prayer and answer in all the Bible. There are a lot of them, but this is an amazing one. I want you to see it. Remember, the Bible talks about the Lord knowing Moses face-to-face. Not seeing him, but he knew the Lord face-to-face; Moses did. So they’re just talking, and it shows his prayer life. It’s pretty amazing here. We’re going to read over this passage here. We’re in verse number seven, Exodus 32.

And verse number seven, if you’re able, would you please stand? We try to do that to show respect for the word of God. I don’t want to get you awake before we put you to sleep, too. Now, everybody, if you would, watch the Powers real closely tonight. They’ve had their grandchildren for about a week and a half. They left. They haven’t caught up on their sleep, and I don’t want them to do that during service tonight. But we’re in verse number seven, Exodus 32. Look at verse number seven, would you please?

And the Bible there says, “And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy—watch what—thy people, which thou brought us out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.” Pretty amazing, Moses in the middle of it. Sometimes the people blame Moses, and now the Lord’s saying, “thy people,” you know. Watch what happens.

Verse number eight: “They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt.” Moses didn’t know it; he was stuck on the mountain at this point. Moses handles it very good. Now, when Moses does go down to the mountain, he sees it; Moses doesn’t handle it real good.

I would not say the Lord’s not handling it well. Of course, the Lord’s always right. But it is interesting. The Lord, he’s seeing what’s going on, and he’s hot over it. But Moses isn’t quite there yet. It’s amazing. Just once again, I’m saying these things on purpose. Let’s keep reading here. We’re in verse number nine. And the Lord said unto Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people.” Stiff-necked—I think of two words: stubborn and prideful. Stubborn and pride, stiff-necked people. Watch what God says: “Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them; and I will make of thee a great nation.”

And Moses besought—that means begged. He besought the Lord his God and said, “Lord,” (by the way, that’s capital; you know, if all the letters are capital in the King James Bible, that’s Jehovah, for everything in the Bible is important) “Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, with a mighty hand? Wherefore should the Egyptians speak and say, ‘For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth?’ Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, ‘I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed; and they shall inherit it forever.’”

Here is an amazing verse, an amazing verse. “And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.” Wow. Just amazing. Just for a bit, we’re going to talk on intercessory prayer. You said, “What does intercessory mean?” I don’t know. I’m doing good just to say the word. But intercessory prayer, that’ll be the title tonight. Just for a bit, just for a bit, we’ll focus on that.

Would you ask the Lord to give that to us? Father, Lord, you know I need to grow in this area also, Lord. Father, would you grow us all? Father, I believe we—myself—we’ve not tapped into near the resource of what you would like to do in us praying for others. Father, would you let us grasp it a little bit tonight? Lord, give us a vision of what can be done through intercessory prayer. Lord, would you help me to use Moses as an example? Lord, just challenge us. Give us a vision of what you can do, what you like to do, Lord. We’ll thank you for what you do, Father. Lord, help me to say everything you want said, even a little phrase you want said, and just use something here to grow us in this area. We’ll thank you for what you do. We ask for this in the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. You may be seated.

Would you look back at verse number 10 real quickly here? I want you to grasp this thing. It’s just amazing when we grasp it. We’re talking about Almighty God. He doesn’t have to answer to anyone, but it’s like he allows himself to be influenced by intercessory prayer. Notice how he words this thing, verse number 10: “Now therefore let me alone.” It just doesn’t seem right that God is telling someone, “Let me alone.” I would not think that God would say that.

It shows, it just gives us a little glimpse of the power that God allows us to have with Him in prayer, specifically the type of praying that’s going on, which is intercessory. It’s just amazing. I’ve never seen God say this unless it was in reference to prayer, and specifically intercessory prayer. But God Almighty is saying here, and it’s just kind of—I have a hard time grasping that God here is saying, “Moses, let me alone.” Just grasp what’s behind that statement. It’s amazing. That’s what God says: “Let me alone that my wrath may wax hot against them.”

It shows that God’s emotions, if you will, He has some wrath. He’s fed up. It’s not a one-time deal that’s been going on. He’s getting sick and tired, if you will, of these people, the rebellion. It’s kind of like God’s saying, “You know what? They’ve not even got the law yet. This thing is really not going to work, so let me just wipe them out in the beginning, and we’ll just start over because we’re not even going, and they’re already failed miserably.” And his wrath, he said, “Let me alone that my wrath may wax.” If it wasn’t in the Bible, I wouldn’t feel right about saying these things. Well, this is what God has in God’s word. It’s amazing to me.

As for him telling him, he said, “that I may consume them, and I will make of thee a great nation.” By the way, Moses, if it was all about Moses, that he may consume it upon his own lust—you know, over there in James—if it was like that, if his motives were that, Moses had an opportunity; he could have had a nation of his own. If it was about Moses, this is the opportunity: “Hey, I’ll wipe them out. We’ll start over with your seed, and I’ll make of you a great nation.” Moses had a great opportunity. But God knew the heart of Moses, and God tends to answer prayers that are not about us, consumed upon our own lust. It’s a wonderful thing when we’re praying intercessory prayers; it’s not even for us. If it was all about Moses’ motives, “All right, sounds good to me, Lord, hey,” you know. But just tonight, try to grasp this: a lot of the greatest prayers in Scripture are intercessory prayer.

Of course, Jesus Christ is a perfect example. He realized that the longest recorded prayer of Jesus is not what we call the Lord’s Prayer, the model prayer. It’s not at all. It’s not really in the garden, and that gives a glimpse—“Not my will, but thine be done”—but we know the hour, at least one, probably two, three there, at least one. But the scripture gives us John 17, the longest recorded prayer of Jesus. Really, if you want to look at Jesus’ prayer life, John 17. Is Jesus intercessory prayer praying for his people? Actually, some of it is for you. The longest recorded prayer of Jesus in the Bible is Jesus praying for others—intercessory prayer. Isn’t it amazing?

Abraham over there, God says, “Hey, Abraham, let me know. I’m going to let you know what I’m about to do. I’m about to go over there to Sodom and Gomorrah and wipe them out,” and he’s letting him in on the secret. The Lord lets the righteous know his secret. And remember that great prayer? Abraham was able to meet—he was over there in Genesis 18. The place where he met with the Lord, he was in his devotion, his bottle over the Lord. “God, I’m about to wipe them out.” Remember Abraham? He said, “Oh, Lord, Lord, Lord, you can’t wipe the righteous out with the wicked.” Remember what he started off with? He said, “What about if you find 50?” If you find 50, you know. “Well, Lord, all right, what about 45? What about 40? 30, 20, 10?” What a great prayer life. God said, “All right, if I can find 10 righteous.” Actually, they didn’t find 10 righteous. If Lot would have just reached his family, it would have been 10. That’s another Bible study. But it didn’t have that, but actually God still honored Abraham’s prayer. The angels went in there and said, “Hey, get out of here. I can’t bring any judgment down to you.” God honored his prayer even though the quota wasn’t met. This great prayer of Abraham, Genesis 18, intercessory prayer.

Check it out. Most of the great prayers and answers to prayer we have in Scripture are intercessory prayer. Even Hannah—now Hannah probably had a little bit of mixed motives, and I’m not saying they’re wrong—but Hannah praying for her son, I’m sure some of that was for her. Her life was having all the children, you know. But even after all that, what Hannah said, “If you give me a son, I’ll give him back to you, Lord; it’ll be for you.” It wasn’t all about herself. God answered that. It’s how we got the great Samuel the prophet. Those were great prayers in the Bible. What about Elijah on Mount Carmel? Was that all about Elijah? No, the purpose of that wasn’t for Elijah. It was so the people of Israel would know who the true God is: Is it Baal the real God or God? It was an intercessory prayer.

What about in Acts 12, the church, when they were praying, “God, you’ve got to save Peter”? Remember they had that all-night prayer meeting at John Mark’s mom’s house? God brought Peter out of the jail. And first automatic doors, even before there was a Walmart! Peter came, and they just opened up. Peter walks out, and he thought he was dreaming or something. He didn’t realize, “I didn’t fall asleep in church this time. That’s not what’s going on. This angel did really get me out of jail. I’m not dreaming.” He walks out; this is real. He goes to that house and says—you know, the little damsel, little teenager Rhoda, comes out there. She says, “Wow, I can tell that.” She runs back in there and tells them, “Hey, Peter’s out there!” “No, we’re praying for Peter to get out of jail! He’s about to get his head chopped off!” I’m telling you, Peter’s out there, just like we are. We pray and pray, and we don’t believe God’s will look at the answer, but God’s still going to answer. Finally, Peter came, “Hey, it is me!” He had to beg, “Y’all calm down. Let me tell you what happened.” But that was the intercessory prayer.

I’m just saying there’s so much power. God seems like he really lends his ear and leans over the banished rails of heaven. He listens in when it’s not that we consume it upon our own lust. That’s a great problem: “You have not because you ask not.” Then you start asking, “I can’t give it to you because it’s all about you.” But God said, “I don’t have to worry about that when you’re praying for others.” It just seems like God says, “Hey, I want to listen in when you’re praying for someone else.”

Remember what he says over in Revelation? When you got saved, when we got born again, you were born of the family of God; you became a priest. Remember, kings and priests? Can I tell you what a priest does? A prophet goes to the people for God, but a priest goes to God for the people. You’re a priest in Christ; you have a right. Jesus rent the veil; you can walk into the Holy of Holies. What does a priest do? A priest walks into the Holy of Holies, not necessarily for themselves, but for others. We are priests with Christ. One of our main jobs is to be praying. When I’m praying for others, by the way, I need a lot of growing in this area. Preaching is just one sinner preaching to a bunch of other sinners; that’s all it is. Man, I like to be better in my prayer life; I want it to be more and more. “Hey, Lord, I’m coming to you for this person and this person, this person.” That’s part of my job as a priest before God.

Moses is going to the Lord. The Lord, his wrath is about to wax hot, and the Lord knows the heart of Moses. He’s going to pray for these people. So the Lord said, “Leave me alone because I’m apt to hear a prayer—an intercessory prayer.”

Wow. When we pray for other people, it’s just amazing the power God gives to us in praying for others. Just amazing. I thought about Brother Howes, who used to tell this story. My old preacher in one of his old churches, he was pastor in Texas, and the church grew a little bit, and he felt like he just couldn’t handle it, and he was going to resign. He had already written out the letter. Nowadays, it’s the email you wrote out, and you don’t send it quite yet. But back then, you wrote it out. He was at the church Saturday night, discouraged, wrote out his resignation, and a man of the church just knew something was wrong. He came up there and prayed with him. They prayed pretty much through the night, and somewhere in the wee hours of the morning, God just answered. The key is that man came up there and was praying for him.

Now, friend, I’m just saying this thing of intercessory prayer. I really think God’s apt to hear the prayers of a husband or a wife when it’s not selfish, or maybe making them right for the better spouse to be. I don’t know when you’re truly sincerely praying for your spouse in love. Maybe that’s when God hears the prayer so much: “Lord, give them a good day. Encourage them, let them have joy, let them just enjoy their day.” Maybe when a child is praying for the parent, or parents praying for the child or a grandchild, maybe a church member praying for another church member. I hope—I don’t want us ever to take Wednesday night prayer request time just lightly. That’s so important. All of our Sunday school classes are great, and I’m not trying to say that a couple’s class is better than them. They’re all great, and I’m sure they all pray. But man, I tell you what, I’ve just seen God answer so many of the prayers over that class. I really believe those people pray for one another. We take these requests, take the Lord in faith. It’s been amazing to see what all God’s done. Intercessory prayer—there’s power.

How we’re there. I love it. I feel I do it so selfishly so often. I’ll ask my wife to pray for me on something because it just seems like God hears her prayers when she prays for me. I wish I could pray back as good for her as she does for me. Oh, God hears the intercessory prayers. Can I just say this? Can I just say a note this time of year? You know the holiday season, Christmas season, Thanksgiving and all that. It’s a wonderful time of the year. You know a whole lot of people are hurting this time of year. Some relatives of some of the sort of people are already dealing with someone who committed suicide this year. I say that just to show you the reality of what’s going on. I wonder if we were just better at praying for one another. It’s just so important. I’m not trying to guilt trip you. I want you to realize the power when you’re praying for other people; there’s power there. This prayer here—we talk about it often—I want you to realize it’s intercessory prayer, and there is power when we pray for other people.

Now let’s keep going. We’ve kind of looked at verse number 10. Let’s look at verse number 11 quickly. We’re going to run through these things. Verse number 11: “And Moses besought the Lord his God, and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people?” Isn’t that amazing? God said, “thy people,” and Moses says, “thy people.” The Lord said, “Moses, which thou brought”—He said, “thou which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, with a mighty hand.” Now here’s the thing that really speaks to my heart about this verse: Isn’t it amazing that Almighty God lets us talk and reason with him like that? God could just squash Moses—boom!

I’m always amazed by that verse: “Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord.” It’s like—I think I mentioned that here recently—can you imagine playing chess with God? I don’t win many chess matches anyway; I don’t like to play it. I lose too much. But can you imagine playing chess with God? He knows what you’re going to do before you do it. And God lets you reason with him; it’s amazing. And that’s not when we’re all perfect either. Coming out of his reason together and say, “The Lord, though your sins be as scarlet.” Isn’t it amazing? God lets Moses—it’s an intercessory prayer; he’s not praying for himself, he’s praying for the children of Israel—but God lets Moses really argue with him a little bit, if you will. God could have just wiped Moses out, but God let him. It’s amazing how God just kind of encourages us: pray. Pray without ceasing. And just pray. God lets us.

Now, by the way, it’s interesting too, Moses. Notice that last part: Moses reminded him it was by your mighty power. If I get what Moses’ angle is, it’s: “Now, God, it couldn’t have been me. I don’t have that mighty power in that hand. I couldn’t have done those 10 plagues and split the Red Sea. Lord, you know this; you did this, Lord.” And God lets us.

You know Jacob over there; he was wrestling with a—what do they call it? What’s the technical term? Theophany? Am I saying that right? Old Testament appearance of Jesus Christ, the Angel of the Lord, and he wrestles with him all night long. Isn’t it amazing? That’s kind of us; we can wrestle with the Lord. God touched him in the hollow of his thigh, one of the strongest parts of a man’s body, just touched it, and he walked with a limp for the rest of his life. God said, “I’ll let you wrestle with me, but honestly, I can just touch him, boom, the strongest part of him.” It’s amazing that God lets you and I, human beings, wrestle with him in prayer. But he does. He’s letting Moses just really reason: “Lord, you know this is not my people; this is your people. You’re the one that brought them out with your mighty hand and your power.” Amazing.

I’m not talking about, and I’m not trying to lead you to be disrespectful towards God, not at all. But God wants you to come and reason with him, talk with him, agonizing prayer. The old time was, they used to talk about praying through. You can get in that prayer mode, and you can continue for days and days just agonizing with God over something. God doesn’t mind that. By the way, you’re not going to wear God out, okay? God allows us to go to him and have power in prayer. It’s amazing. That’s what he’s teaching here. To the point at the end it says, “But then the Lord repented.” Now be careful; that doesn’t mean a change from sin. It means he changed his mind. He said, “Oh, I’m not going to do that.” He was never sinful. The evil we’re talking about isn’t sinful evil; he was talking about the destruction he was going to bring on them. That’s what scripture says, friends. It’s amazing. God wants you and I to be like that in prayer. Just amazing what all the Lord does.

Let’s keep going here. Let’s look at the reasoning that Moses gives in this great, great prayer. Verse number 12: “Wherefore should the Egyptians speak and say, ‘For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth?’ Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people.” Wow. When’s the last time you said, “Lord, you’ve got to do this,” not out of disrespect, but out of a longing and a desire for God? When’s the last time you said, “Lord, I’m not going to leave you alone until you do it”?

You know, over there in Luke 18, the unjust judge? Over there in Luke 11, the friend that would come at midnight, he said, “I won’t give it to him because he’s my friend, yet because of his importunity”—that means continual begging—“Now I’ll give him as many as he needs.” You understand scripture’s teaching us to go to God. Someone said, “Preacher, is it vain repetition when I ask God to save someone over and over and over again?” There’s nothing vain about that. Not a thing vain about that. It’s what God wants. If you’re using vain repetition to look good and all that, that’s a different story. Nothing vain about it if you’re sincerely going to God, “Lord, you’ve got to do this.” It’s a prayer consonant as well; we know it’s as well for people to be saved.

It’s just amazing how God lets you and I… Now, in verse number 12 here, he really uses the angle of, “God, what about your testimony? What about the glory of your name? What are people going to think about Jehovah?” I wonder how many Egyptians ended up getting saved. There was a mixed multitude; we think some of those were Egyptians that left when they left. Of course, the army and Pharaoh were wiped out at the Red Sea. I wonder how many other Egyptians knew and had seen the ten plagues and the frogs and the lice and the blood and all these. “Well, that’s the true God.” And now they’ve seen their army and Pharaoh crushed. “Well, we’re turning to Jehovah.” I wonder how much Moses is saying, “Lord, what are those Egyptians going to say? Nobody else is going to get saved over there if you just wipe out the children of Israel.” But God’s allowing him to bring up his bullet points, his power points, in prayer.

Let’s keep going here. Look at verse number 13. Verse number 13, he says here, “Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel” (that would be Jacob; remember his name was changed to Israel) “thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidest unto them, ‘I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed; and they shall inherit it forever.’” To me, verse number 13, of course, he’s mentioning back the promises of the covenant, the Abrahamic covenant and all that. It smacks of the promises of God. I don’t think at this point that Moses had penned the first five books of the Bible. I don’t think so at all; some of it was still being lived out. So they didn’t really have the scriptures, but these promises are mentioned many times in the Bible. Genesis 12, Abrahamic covenant to Abraham. He mentions it several times—one, two, three, four other times—to Abraham. He mentioned it to Isaac, Genesis 26:4. He mentions Jacob or Israel two different times recorded in the scripture. Here’s what I’m getting at: When we go to God and say, “The Lord over there,” well, let me—I put this one out—look over in Isaiah 44. This is a great scripture for a parent or maybe a grandparent to claim for God to work on your seed or your children, your grandchildren. It’s a great promise you can claim: “The Lord, right there, you promised this.” That’s really what Moses is doing right now. “Lord, you promised these things.”

How many of you would love to see the Spirit of the Lord poured out upon either your children or grandchildren? You would like to see the Spirit of the Lord poured out upon your children or grandchildren. How many like that? There’s a promise here for that. Look at this in Isaiah 44, verse number three. He says, “For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground. I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring.” If you’re thirsty for it. Now, friend, you could say, “Lord, I’m so thirsty. I’m just like dried-up ground. I’ve got to have you. I’m thirsty for you.” And Lord, you said if I’m thirsty—I am right now—Lord, you will pour out your Spirit on my seed. God wants you to claim his promise. God’s not afraid of you claiming a promise. He put them in there for you. There’s a book full of them. God gives this promise, and he invites you to take his promises. That’s what Moses is doing. “Lord, you said this back here. You said it to Abraham, to Isaac, to Israel. You said it to them, and you swore by your own name. This is God’s word, and you cannot lie.” God wants you to claim promises. Maybe you’re saying, “Lord, my children need you, and I’m going to claim that promise.” Maybe you claim Romans 8:28 for someone else. But Moses is claiming the promises of God, and actually for other people. What a combination! When you get a promise in there and you have intercessory prayer—wow, that’s a pretty good combination right there. That’s what he’s doing. It’s right and proper to claim the promises of God in prayer, especially when praying for others. Some people will even just pray the Bible to the Lord.

By the way, when Elijah—I’ve already mentioned Elijah over there on Mount Carmel—remember before that it didn’t rain for three and a half years? Elijah was just claiming a promise that God had said over there in Deuteronomy. God had said it here, remember the blessing or the curse over that? I think it’s chapter 28. He said, “If you don’t get right, I’m going to stop the rain.” Elijah was just praying one of the promises God gave. God wants you to do that. There’s power in that when we claim these promises of God: “Lord, I’m coming to you about this, and this is what you said.” God is not nervous about you claiming his promises. He can keep his word. He invites you to do that. It’s an amazing thing.

Now, let’s get to verse number 14. We’re going to move along here tonight. Verse number 14: “And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.” Wow. God had to change his mind. He said, “All right, Moses, I’ll give you your way.” Here’s the interesting thing about it: Picture this happening up on the Mount—Moses and the Lord, Moses and Jehovah. The people are down there; they’re still in their sin. Moses eventually gets down there; that’s when he throws the tablets down and all that. The people had no idea that God was about to strike like, boom, it was about to get to them. They have no idea that Moses just saved their lives.

When you get involved in this intercessory prayer, nobody might—they might not ever know until heaven what you did for them. But it’s not about them knowing about it, because it really wouldn’t be true intercessory prayer if it were more about you. “Well, I saved your life because I prayed for mercy in your life.” Boy, you’re very humble about your prayer life, aren’t you? Very unselfish about that. Kind of reminds you of Jesus; he made himself of no reputation. You really remind me of Jesus there. No, they might not ever know about it down here. That’s not the big thing. Sometimes God, even in your prayer life, will say, “Hey, I heard your prayer. I’m going to have mercy on you. I’m going to work there. Keep praying; I’m working.” That maybe has a little bit to do sometimes. He said many times the first shall be last, and the last shall be first. Nobody really ever knows who’s been praying for them. The greatest thing you can do for someone is pray for them. I’m always humbled when somebody says, “I pray for you every day.” I’m like, “Wow, I wish I was better at it.” That’s just amazing. Nobody will ever know what God did, but sometimes it’s just you and God. That’s all you need anyway.

The people down there had no clue; they were just going on in their sin, and Moses just saved their lives. I wonder how many people will never know until they get to heaven that somebody’s prayer life saved their life. Sometimes you need to talk to someone: “Well, my grandpa’s been praying for me on that for you,” and that’s wonderful. But I wonder how many times we have no clue somebody’s been praying. My dad often mentioned his—I think it was his grandmother, a godly lady who would never get to meet or anything—but maybe way back, he says he thinks she got saved because someone way back there was praying. My mom prayed greatly, of course. When we get to heaven, it’s going to be interesting. People have no clue, but somebody’s been praying. I thought about this year, I thought about Brother Josh and Miss Beth. They’ve been a great testimony to their family, but it does seem like the church family really bonded together. They were already praying; they kind of got us going that way, praying for Carlos. Carlos got saved this year, and I know a lot of you prayed a lot for Carlos. I had a good year of baptisms. I wonder how many—some of those baptisms were just like, “Wow, okay, pray, Lord, you want to get baptized? We’re all about it.” I’ve been praying about that.

All the things I thought about today. I’m not trying to make it about me, but it’s not about me; it’s about you. When I hurt my back and my L1 vertebrae was fractured a bit—technically, I broke my back—it’s amazing how quickly it healed. I really attribute that to your prayers. It’s amazing how people pray. I thought about each one bringing—what a great day that was! That’s just a victory day, having to bring chairs out and the people that came, and lines just really touched on that day, able to give what I had of 12,000, whatever, the children’s home, all those different things, and people praying for that day.

Just intercessory. I thought about Family Harvest Days this year. We’ve had people come to church. We’ve had a lot of people saved during Family Harvest and even after Family Harvest Days. I thought about Ashley Reese. Helen and Jimmy, Jimmy and Helen, they’ve been coming for years and years, but their daughter getting saved. How God worked that out was just amazing—a lot behind the scenes, just people praying. It’s just amazing when God’s people start praying for other people, God works in other people’s lives. God hears those prayers. It’s awesome, awesome to see.

Years ago we had what we called at the time “All Out for Soul Sunday.” We were in our second storefront, just a little bitty storefront building. It’s that one there in LaVerne; it’s a vape shop now. They got that awning out there with all that vape on there. If you ever hear of somebody egging that store or something, you’ll know who did it. Don’t go do it and blame it on me. If I’m going to get them playing, give me the joy of doing some of it. It’s not fair; they’re putting a vape shop in our old church building.

Anyway, in that building, we had a special Sunday. I remember the couple in the older age group at that time. They were burdened about some friends of a lifetime—a husband and wife burdened about another husband and wife. The man met the other man when they were just boys. This shows how old they are. Some of them are still living; half of them are dead, half of them were living. They met in the front yard where there was a pump in Nashville, where you hook the water bucket on there and pump the water in. The one guy said, “Hey, can you do this?” He took the water and swung it all the way around, and the water was still in there. The other guy tried to do that, and the water went boom all over him. I guess that was their first time. They were just boys, so they knew each other well by middle age when this happened—older than middle age. The one couple coming to church got so burned for them; they fasted over them. They really just invited them to church; I think they pretty much begged them to come to church, took them out to eat, took them over to their house to eat after all that stuff. I remember how they prayed for that day. That lady, the husband and wife praying for this other couple, the lady got saved on “All Out for Soul Sunday.” The husband didn’t, but they kept coming for years and years. Finally, in this building, the husband—I remember him sitting somewhere, maybe between my mom and the Johannes—I remember him just grabbing a whole year, white-knuckling, just hanging on. Finally, one of those Sunday mornings, he got saved. I believe both of them are in heaven now. I thought about that: that wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for the first couple that got so burned and prayed and fasted over them.

You’re saying intercessory prayer—there’s so much power there. God likes to talk and listen to people when they’re praying for others. It’s amazing. I don’t know how many Jews—we’ve talked about this in the past, Israelite, Jewish people. I would say at least a million and a half, up to 2 million, some will even say up to 3 million. We’ve studied that part out. Remember, we said that’s more than Davidson County, Rutherford County, Wilson County combined. What was that 1.2, if I remember right, we studied that months ago? Imagine all those people; God said, “I’m going to spare them because of one man’s intercessory prayer.” Imagine them going up to heaven. Maybe they understood a bit later on—we’ll study later on how Moses got mad himself and all that. But can you imagine them going up to heaven and saying, “Hey, Moses, thank you for that prayer you had for us.” It was your prayer life. Of course, we won’t have our flesh and our selfishness then, but we’ll have rejoiced. Imagine someone you’ve been praying for; sometimes you may not even know what all God did because of your prayer, but in heaven, they come up saying, “Hey, Brother Johan, thank you so much for praying for me. God changed my life because of your prayers.” Ask me about the joy in heaven.

Remember over there, 1 Corinthians 3, the judgment seat of Christ for someone that’s been saved? We won’t judge for sins; Jesus took that judgment on the cross, but a judgment of your works for reward’s sake. It’s tried by fire. Remember, the wood, hay, and stubble burn up; the gold, silver, precious stone, it’s still there. It’s interesting, three different descriptions of both sides. Wood, hay, and stubble—some burn quicker than others, you understand? Over here, gold, silver, precious stones. Maybe it wasn’t the best, if you will, but it was just out of sincere love for them, not love for the Lord, but you still got rewards because you were praying, you loved them. God says, “The prayers you had, I worked; my almighty power worked because you prayed.” And you got rewards for that: intercessory prayer.

Original File: Pastor Paul Chisgar - - Intercessory Prayer - Wednesday PM 12062023