Real Friendship and the Pleading Priest

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Happy Sunday. Good morning.

I'm Tonya and I'm part of the Oikos in the Oaks and Women Reading Women monthly book club groups.

Today's scripture reading is from the book of Genesis chapter 18 verses 16 to 33 as printed in your liturgy.

Genesis 18:16–33

A reading from the book of Genesis.

When the men got up to leave, they looked down towards Sodom and Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way.

Then the Lord said, shall I hide from Abraham what I'm about to do?

Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation and all nations on earth will be blessed through him.

For I have chosen him so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just.

So that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.

So then the Lord said, the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sins so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me.

If not, I will know.

The men turned away and went towards Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord.

Then Abraham approached him and said, will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?

What if there are 50 righteous people in this city?

Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the 50 righteous people in it?

Far be it from you to do such a thing, to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike.

Far be it from you.

Will not the judge of all the earth do right?

The Lord said, if I find 50 righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.

Then Abraham spoke up again.

Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, what if the number of the righteous is five less than 50?

Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five people?

If I find 45 there, he said, I will not destroy it.

Once again, he spoke to him.

What if only 40 are found there?

He said, for the sake of 40, I will not do it.

Then he said, may the Lord not be angry, but let me speak.

What if only 30 can be found there?

He answered, I will not do it if I find 30 there.

Abraham said, now that I've been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only 20 can be found there?

He said, for the sake of 20, I will not destroy it.

Then he said, may the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more.

What if only 10 can be found there?

He answered, for the sake of 10, I will not destroy it.

When the Lord had finished speaking with Abraham, he left and Abraham returned home.

The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever.

Good morning, Christ Church.

We're about halfway through this sermon series in Genesis, and so I thought it'd be fitting after today's service to offer a Q&A on this sermon,

on the book of Genesis, on the Bible, on really any question you would like to ask.

We'll gather up for a Q&A after this service.

But last Sunday, we were looking at the same chapter, Genesis 18.

The Lord came, and he said, where's Sarah?

And Sarah laughed, and God transformed her laugh.

So this is picking right up where we left off.

In verse 17, the Lord says, shall I hide from Abraham what I'm about to do?

And that's basically like saying, I probably shouldn't be telling you this, but.

Right?

It's tipping your hand.

It's revealing your intentions.

It's letting the cat out of the bag.

The Lord clearly does not want to hide from Abraham what he's about to do.

Why?

Because he's chosen Abraham to be his covenant partner.

And we kind of see that in verse 17.

Shall I hide from Abraham what I'm about to do?

Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed

through him, for I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household

after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will

bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.

In other words, if Abraham and if all the people of Abraham are going to be a community, are going

to be a nation through whom the blessing of God goes out to all the nations of the earth,

if they're going to be a people who keep the way of the Lord, a people who do what is right

and what is just, a people who are righteous and who are just, then they must necessarily be involved

with God.

They must be participating with God in his work in the world.

And this means that Abraham and the people of Abraham need to learn to be a people of prayer.

They've got to learn how to pray.

Shall I hide from Abraham what I'm about to do?

That's an invitation to pray.

And it actually leads to the first full prayer with petitions recorded in the Bible, one of

the greatest prayers in all of the scriptures.

And what we learn here right off the bat is that prayer is not our idea, it's God's idea.

And prayer is never, it never comes at our initiation, it comes at God's initiation.

If you ever sense that you should pray, it's because God is prompting you to pray.

Prayer is answering God.

Prayer is responding to God's word, responding to God's spirit.

And the God that we meet here in the story is a living God.

He's a real God who speaks and who invites us into his presence and who prompts us to pray

and who listens to us and wants a personal relationship with us.

And prayer is the conversation that keeps the relationship alive, right?

Just like any other relationship we have, we have to talk to that person.

And so there's lots of different kinds of prayer in the Bible, but we're going to ask three

questions today.

What is intercessory prayer?

What fuels this kind of praying?

And how can we contend for our city?

What is intercessory prayer?

What fuels this kind of praying?

And how can we contend for our city?

If you look at verse 20, then the Lord said, the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so

great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as

bad as the outcry that has reached me.

If not, I will know.

And then the men turned away and went towards Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before

the Lord.

Then Abraham approached him and said, will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?

So we've heard already in verse 19, Abraham is called to form this family.

He's called to form a whole nation, in fact, that will keep the way of the Lord and will

do what is right and what is just.

But what do those words actually mean?

And what do they have to do with this outcry that's coming up to the Lord?

Well, the Hebrew word, tzedekah, which means righteousness, it's about the day-to-day living

of a person who conducts all of their relationships in their family and in society with fairness and

generosity and equity.

And a righteous person is someone who will disadvantage themselves in order to advantage

the community.

And a wicked person is someone who does the opposite.

A wicked person is someone who will disadvantage the community in order to advantage themselves.

That's tzedekah, that's righteousness.

And the Hebrew word mishpat, which means justice, is all about giving people what they are due.

If someone is due punishment or if someone is due protection, you give them what they're

due.

And over and over in the scriptures, mishpat describes taking up the care and the cause of

four different kinds of people, widows, orphans, immigrants, and the poor.

And we describe these as the quartet of the vulnerable.

These are people who have no economic power, no social power.

They're so easily neglected and ignored, so easily exploited and harmed.

And so when the Lord says in verse 20, a great outcry about grievous sins has come up to me,

it's all about tzedekah and mishpat.

It's all about these cities who have become so corrupt, so vicious, so cruel, so violent,

that victims of unrighteousness, victims of injustice are crying out to the Lord for righteousness

and justice.

You guys with me so far?

Okay.

So the prophet Ezekiel, interestingly, in Ezekiel 16, the prophet says,

the sin of Sodom is that she is arrogant, overfed, and unconcerned.

She does not help the poor and the needy.

And God doesn't stand aloof to that.

He stands in judgment on that.

And you might say, well, I don't believe in a God of judgment.

I believe in a God of mercy, right?

But if you have a God who hears the cries of people who are oppressed, who are being

absolutely crushed, and he never actually judges their oppressors, is that actually a

God of mercy?

So what you have here is both a just and a merciful God who hears this outcry, and he

asks Abraham to intervene.

Shall I hide from Abraham what I'm about to do?

No, I'm not going to hide it.

And Abraham knows that, and Abraham turns in verse 23, and it says, Abraham approached

him and said, will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?

And this term, approached, it's a legal word.

It means to approach the bench, to approach the judge, right?

It's like a courtroom where Abraham's been invited to become the legal representative of

this pagan city before Almighty God.

And he goes to the bench, and he begins to intervene.

He begins to argue a case.

He begins to contend for the future of this city.

And what's surprising as he's making his case is that if you know anything about the story,

Abraham's nephew, Lot, and his whole family is in this city, but he doesn't mention them

at all.

And Gordon Wynnum is a great Old Testament scholar.

In his commentary, he says this.

He says, this text, Genesis 18, has all kind of links with the great intercessions of Moses

and of Samuel and of Amos and of Jeremiah, who all pleaded to God on the nation's behalf.

They pleaded on Israel's behalf.

But he says here, Abraham is, he's not praying for his own people, he's praying for Sodom.

And that, Gordon Wynnum says, that makes this episode unique among prophetic intercessions.

Because Abraham's not praying for his own needs.

He's not praying for his grocery list of, I need this and I want that, give me this,

give me that.

Nor is he praying for his own family or his own people, his own tribe, people who believe

like him, look like him, share the same race, the same God.

No.

It says that he's praying for Canaanite pagans.

He's praying for the whole city.

He's praying for people who, even at this moment, are doing wicked things.

And he's just laying himself out before God for their good.

So this is a prayer that's remarkably unselfish, remarkably outwardly facing, broad, inclusive,

universal.

Because Abraham knows that he's been blessed to be a blessing, right?

Back in Genesis 12.

And that's repeated here in verse 18.

All the nations of the earth will be blessed through him.

And one of the primary ways that Abraham understands how this blessing is going to go through him

out to all the peoples is through prayer.

Through intercessory prayer.

And so at first glance, as Abraham begins to talk to God, and is talking God down from

50 to 45 to 40 to 30 to 20 to 10, it sounds like we're listening to two Middle Eastern people

in a marketplace haggling over the price of melons.

Right?

But it's actually profoundly deeper than that.

There's something profoundly theological going on here where it says in verse 23,

Abraham approached the bench and he said,

Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?

What if there are 50 righteous people in the city?

Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the 50 righteous people in it?

Far be it from you to do such a thing, to kill the righteous and the wicked,

treating the righteous and the wicked alike.

Far be it from you.

Will not the judge of all the earth do right?

See, Abraham's approaching the bench like a lawyer, like a defense attorney.

And a good defense attorney will not come to the judge and say,

Your Honor, my client is guilty of breaking this law, but don't you think this is kind of a stupid law?

Or, hey, Your Honor, can't you just for today forget everything you learned in law school?

And just for a moment, like kind of be a little flexible on the standard of the law,

and just have a heart and give my client a break?

If that's your defense attorney, you need a new defense attorney,

because you're not going to win in court.

See, Abraham knows how to win in court.

He goes back to Genesis 1-2, and he says,

God, the facts are, You're the creator.

You are the moral standard maker of the universe.

You are the righteous and the just lawgiver.

And so I'm not asking you to be something you're not.

I'm not asking you to do something other than what you do.

But Abraham also goes back to Genesis 3 and Genesis 6 and Genesis 13,

and he says, You're not just a law-giving and a just God who demands righteousness and justice,

but you're also a compassionate God, and you're a gracious God.

You spared Adam and Eve, and you spared Noah and his family,

and you spared me and my family.

You called me out of pagan idolatry to become your person,

to be a blessing to all the peoples of the earth.

So I know he's calling on the nature of God and the very attributes of God

and saying, God, I know who you revealed yourself to be.

And so the question that I'm asking you, God,

is what if there are both righteous and wicked people in this city?

You wouldn't sweep the righteous away with the wicked, would you?

Because that wouldn't be right.

Wouldn't you rather spare this whole city?

Wouldn't you rather just forgive and save this entire city,

including the wicked, for the sake of the righteous?

He's saying, Look, God, I'm not asking you for the salvation of people

in spite of your demands for righteousness,

but rather what I'm asking is this.

Will you forgive the unrighteous many for the sake of the righteous few?

And could you value the righteousness of the few so much

that it covers the wickedness of the many?

God, could you please spare, could you please forgive this whole city

for a righteous remnant that might be inside of it?

Because I know that the wicked have failed your moral law.

I know they have a guilty record,

but is it possible that the righteousness of someone else

could cover them and could save them?

You see, we all live in a culture of radical individualism,

so this makes no sense at all.

But for Abraham, he's an ancient person,

and so he's pressing God for corporate solidarity

and a sense of organic connectionalism.

He's pushing God in this direction of collective responsibility.

He says, We all know it's true that if one person royally screws up,

royally sins,

then another person or another whole group of people

are going to be negatively affected by that, right?

And Abraham says,

But what if that principle works in the opposite direction?

Is it possible that the righteousness of others

could positively impact another person

or another group of people?

He says, God,

is your treatment of the human community

going to be based on the wicked record of the many,

or could it be based on the righteous record of the few?

And at an even deeper level in this prayer,

Abraham is saying,

God, is it possible that your merciful will to save

could become greater than your just will to punish?

And is it possible for your divine justice

for the sake of the wicked

to be somehow subsumed under your divine mercy

for the sake of the righteous?

How do we apply this kind of praying to our lives?

Well, I hope you can see so far

that prayer is about more than just shooting up flares

and saying, is there anybody up there?

It's way more than just writing down

little messages in a bottle,

sending them out,

hoping somebody will read these one day.

No, prayer is about crying out to the living God,

this God who's revealed himself in the Bible,

calling on, grabbing hold of his nature

and his attributes

and all of his promises and his will

and saying, God, I'm not going to let you go.

Prayer is about standing in the gap

between the creator and his creatures.

It's about standing in that place

between the living God

and the cities in which we inhabit

and on the basis of who God says he is,

engaging him in a conversation

that's both broad and deep,

that's both universal and theological.

If we're going to be mature Christians,

if we're going to be a healthy church,

we've got to learn how to pray like Abraham,

which means that we've got to get around people

who have learned how to pray this way

and we've got to get ourselves into resources

that can teach us how to pray this way

and that's why we're going to keep going in this passage

because this is the first resource.

So what is intercessory prayer?

Second question is,

what fuels this kind of praying?

It's interesting that

when Abraham approaches the bench,

he just begins kind of

launching all kind of questions at God, right?

And he even gets to the point,

he says, God, will you really?

Will you really?

Far be it from you, God.

God.

It's kind of an intimate

and also intense form

of communication with Almighty God,

is it not?

If you look at the Psalms,

the prayer book of the Bible,

you see the exact same kind of thing.

Abraham has this incredibly bold faith

where he just,

he approaches the bench

like he deserves to be there

and he moves right into the presence

of the judge of all the earth

with a kind of accessibility

and a kind of familiarity

and he just begins to argue,

argue his case.

And how does the Lord respond to that?

Is the Lord displeased with that?

Well, verse 26 says,

the Lord said,

if I find 50 righteous people

in the city of Sodom,

like you've asked,

I will spare the whole place

for their sake.

And then Abraham spoke up again

and he said,

now that I've been so bold

as to speak to the Lord,

though I'm nothing but dust and ashes,

what if the number of the righteous

is five less than 50,

will you destroy the whole city

for lack of five people?

If I find 45 there,

he said,

I will not destroy it.

See, Abraham knows

that he's asking boldly,

right,

he's got chutzpah,

as they say.

He knows that.

But at the same time,

he also says,

I'm nothing but dust and ashes,

which is a profound statement

of humility and deference

that, again,

is rooted in divine revelation.

He's going back to Genesis 2.

We're nothing but,

we're made from the dust,

right?

Genesis 3,

we're fallen sinners

who deserve nothing but death and ashes.

And most people struggle

to hold these two things together

at the same time,

right?

Conservative people tend to say,

you know,

God is a personal God

and he's this imminent God

and so we're looking for

a sense of the presence of God.

We want to draw near to God.

We want to experience

intimacy with God.

We want to approach him.

We want to talk to him.

But we don't really want to go after God

in prayer.

We don't want to be too assertive.

We don't want to be aggressive

like Abraham is in this prayer

because that's not appropriate

if God is absolute

and God is transcendent.

It's not respectful enough.

It's not formal enough.

Who could go to God like that?

But on the other hand,

liberal-minded people

who really have a passion

for causes of collective righteousness,

causes of corporate justice,

they might want to talk to people

about these things.

Maybe occasionally they'll talk to God

about these things.

But they certainly won't admit

that before the cosmic majesty of God,

I'm really nothing but dust and ashes.

I really don't even deserve

to be here right now.

I don't deserve to ask for anything.

I'm just weak and unworthy

and undeserving.

I'm totally helpless,

totally hopeless.

And you see,

neither group,

neither Christian here

or Christian there,

church here or Christian,

neither of them are as bold

and as humble as Abraham is.

Abraham shows us

how to approach the bench,

how to come to the throne of God,

the presence of God,

with a kind of confidence

and a boldness

that's also counterbalanced

by deference and humility.

And it's clear

that the Lord is pleased

with this kind of praying.

He's pleased

with this kind of attitude

and this kind of approach

because to Abraham's astonishment

over and over again,

the Lord continues to say yes.

And Abraham,

if you notice,

Abraham is the kind of person

who refuses to take yes

for an answer.

Six times the Lord says yes

and six times Abraham

with humble boldness

and bold humility says,

no, I want more.

I want more.

He's pressing the Lord

as far as the Lord

can be pressed to go.

And he gets him all the way

from 50 to 45, 40, 30, 20, 10,

all the way to 10.

And then the conversation

just stops right there.

Why?

Why is that?

Because clearly Abraham

would keep going.

Right?

Abraham would go

all the way down to one.

But it says in verse 33,

the Lord finished speaking with him

and so Abraham just went home.

The Lord stops Abraham short

because he knows

there's actually not

one righteous person

in that city.

Abraham's nephew Lot

is there,

but he's an immigrant.

He's not a citizen of the city.

And if you know anything

about his story,

he's relatively righteous.

Right?

Right?

His record,

like ours,

is pretty spotty.

And so the Lord

just stops Abraham short

and says,

there's not even one

righteous person

in that city.

And you see,

Abraham is a prophet.

Abraham is a priest.

And he's doing

what prophets and priests do.

He's interceding

for the city.

But the thing about Abraham

is the only thing

he can really do

is argue this case,

but he's not able

to execute the case.

He's not able

to close the case.

And so what we need

is a true prophet.

What we need

is a high priest

who's not able

just to argue the case,

but is able

to execute the case.

And that's why

we have the New Testament.

Right?

The book of Hebrews

Hebrews 7:24

chapter 7,

verse 24 says,

because Jesus lives forever,

he has a permanent priesthood.

And therefore,

he's able to save completely

those who come to God

through him

because he always lives

to intercede for them.

Such a high priest

truly meets our need,

one who is holy,

blameless,

pure,

set apart from sinners,

exalted above the heavens.

He does not need

to offer sacrifices

for his own sins.

He sacrificed

for the sins

of the people

once for all

when he offered himself.

What in the world

does that mean?

Well,

you see,

Abraham,

he's praying

for Canaanites

who are hostile to him.

If you go back

and you look

at Genesis chapter 14,

Genesis 14 · chapter mention

Abraham's having

to keep

these pagan Canaanites

off with swords.

They're trying

to attack him.

They could hurt him.

But he's praying

for them anyway.

And yet,

Jesus,

the true prophet,

the true high priest,

prayed for people

who are actually

in the act

of killing him.

Right on the cross,

what did Jesus pray?

He prayed,

Father,

forgive them

for they don't know

what they're doing.

Jesus is giving

his life

for the people

he's praying for.

Jesus

is not only

able to argue

our case,

but he's able

to execute

our case.

Because even though

he didn't have to come,

he came anyway.

And he lived

the righteous life

that every one of us

was supposed to live.

And even though

he was absolutely

innocent,

he died the death

of a criminal.

He died a just death

in our place,

the death that we

deserve to die.

And the night

before he went

to his cross,

he prayed,

in this great

high priestly prayer

in the Gospel

of John,

John 17 · chapter mention

chapter 17.

He said,

Father,

I want you

to love them

as you love me.

In other words,

I want you

to treat them

like you treat me,

as if they were me.

And what happens

there at the cross

is that our legal

representative

stands before the bench

of divine justice

and he says,

I'm going to do it,

Father.

I'm going to love you

with all my heart,

soul,

mind,

and strength

right now.

I'm going to love

my neighbor

as myself.

I'm going to die

as the one

righteous person

who's ever lived

on planet earth.

And so the question

that rings out

from this text

through the rest

of the scriptures,

will the Lord

save the many wicked

for the sake

of the one righteous?

The answer is yes.

When you have

the right person,

yes.

and so friends,

when you enter

into solidarity

with Jesus,

what happens

is that your

unrighteousness

becomes his

and his righteousness

becomes yours.

And that's what

the apostle Paul says

in 2 Corinthians

2 Corinthians 5:21

chapter 5

verse 21.

It says,

God made him

who had no sin

to be sin for us

so that in him

we might become

the righteousness

of God.

So again,

how do we apply

this to our lives?

Well,

yeah,

how do we

pray like this?

First of all,

we need to see

that we have

even more reason

than Abraham

had to be humble

before the majesty

of Almighty God

because we

are so flawed.

We are so sinful.

We are so

much more wicked

than we want

to admit

to ourselves

that the eternal

Son of God

had to come

and die

in our place

on the cross

to save us.

And so that means

that when we come

to God,

we say that much

more than Abraham,

I'm nothing

but dust and ashes.

I know what it took

for me to be saved.

I'm nothing

but dust and ashes.

And yet,

secondly,

we need to see

that we have

even more reason

than Abraham did

to be bold

before God's throne

of grace

because we're

so loved.

We're so accepted

that Jesus was

glad to die for us.

He cares for us

at infinite cost

to himself.

So we don't just

come with humility,

we come with boldness

and we come

and we say,

this is where

you made it possible

for me to be

and I'm not going

to take yes

for an answer

because I'm here.

I'm here because

you shed your blood

for me to be here.

And the third thing

we need to see

is that we have

a true and a better

Abraham

as our high priest

who's sitting

enthroned right now

as we've said already

from Hebrews 7.25,

he's always living

to intercede for us.

And that means

that we have

a friend in high places.

Right?

We have a friend

in the highest place,

the control room

of the universe.

He was raised

from the dead

and he was exalted

to the right hand

of the Father

and given all authority

in heaven

and on earth

and that person

is our friend.

That person

is advocating

for us

with an infallible case,

an executed case,

a closed case.

And that's what gives us

the kind of power

to pray this way.

Hebrews, again,

Hebrews chapter 4 says,

Hebrews 4 · chapter mention

therefore since we have

a great high priest

who has ascended

into heaven,

Jesus the Son of God,

we do not have

a high priest

who's unable

to empathize

with our weaknesses,

but we have one

who's been tempted

in every way

just as we are,

yet he did not sin.

Let us, therefore,

approach God's throne

of grace with confidence

so that we may receive mercy

and find grace

to help us

in our time of need.

If we grab hold of this,

this is the thing,

this is the fuel,

this is the power

that will change

your prayer life

from being non-existent

or overly formal

or overly vague

or just absolutely boring.

into a real

and living

and intimate

and passionate

and adventurous

and indeed risky

act of faith.

And this is what God

wants from his people.

It's very clear.

He says,

Abraham,

it's what I want you to be.

It's what I want

all of your children to be,

to learn to pray like this.

So what is intercessory prayer?

What fuels such praying?

Last question,

it's very short.

How can we do this

for our city?

How can we contend

for our city?

One of the commentators

I read,

his name's Nahum Sarna.

He wrote the commentaries

for the Jewish Publication Society

on Genesis and Exodus.

And he said this,

he said,

until now,

Abraham has spoken

with God three times.

On each occasion,

his personal welfare

has been the sole subject

of discourse.

Now a change takes place.

This dialogue with God

involves a concern

for the welfare of others,

total strangers.

Abraham displays

an awareness of suffering

and an ability to respond

beyond his immediate

personal interests.

And Sarna goes on,

he says,

his compassionate behavior

at this moment

makes him the paradigm

of the just and the right.

Qualities that are to characterize

all of his descendants.

Abraham now stands before God

to plead for the lives

of depraved pagans.

He senses kinship

with the people of Sodom

and feels himself involved

in their fate.

What if we felt the way

Abraham felt?

What if we sensed a kinship

for the suffering of our city?

What if we felt ourselves

to be involved

not just in our own

personal interests

but in the welfare

and the fate of our city?

The New Testament says

that every single Christian believer

is like Abraham.

Right?

1 Peter 2.9 says

that the community of Jesus

is to be a royal priesthood.

And Revelation 1 verse 6

Revelation 1:6

says that Jesus made us

to be a kingdom of priests

to serve his God and Father.

What does that mean?

What does it mean

to be a kingdom of priests?

A royal priesthood

that is contending

for the spiritual,

social,

and cultural renewal

and well-being

and flourishing

of our city?

What would it mean

if we began to turn to God

in this kind of prayer

more than we currently do?

What would it mean

if we called

on the name of the Lord

with this kind of boldness

and this kind of humility?

If we said,

God,

we're nothing but dust and ashes

and yet,

God,

we're here

at this throne of grace.

We don't want to take yes

for an answer.

What if we were to call out

to God and say,

God,

give us a hunger

and a thirst

for righteousness

and justice.

And what if we contended

for God

not only for our own needs,

our own spiritual life,

but what if we contended

to God

for the lives of others,

for the next generation,

for the whole of our city

that doesn't know God?

What if we took more ownership

like Abraham took ownership

over a city

he didn't even belong to?

What if we began

to identify

with the problems

of our city?

What if we began

to repent

on its behalf?

What if we operated

with a holy burden

that broken people

in our city

would be mended?

What if we cried out

to God

that people

who don't know him

would come to know him

and be saved

by the one righteous person

God has provided?

And what if we prayed

that all

who've been rescued

by Jesus

would live out

the righteousness

and the justice

of Jesus

in sanctified lives,

holy lives

that are fully conformed

to his self-giving love?

You know,

there's many steps

we could take

in prayer

but the one

I'll just mention

as we close

is that we

we didn't plan this

six months ago

but we

we just put on the calendar

that Wednesday

this Wednesday

we wanted

the church

to commit itself

to a day of prayer

and fasting.

Didn't know what text

we were preaching today

we just put it on the calendar

and you're gonna hear

about it in a moment

we're just calling you

to carve out

an hour of your day

we're giving you

a prayer guide

you can pray on your own

you can pray

with other people

you can pray at home

at work

you can pray here

we try to eliminate

every barrier

for you to say

no I cannot pray

and we would just

simply ask

I just wanna ask

as we close

this sermon

will you pray?

Will you pray

like Abraham?

Abraham

the Lord said

he'll preserve the city

if there are 50

righteous people in it

he'll even preserve the city

if there's 10

righteous people in it

and so what if we

were a little prophetic

community

a little priestly community

that was so filled

with love for God

love for neighbor

that we wanted to

go to God

in bold humility

and intercede

for the flourishing

of others

for the flourishing

of our city

this would please God

I think

very very much

John Newton

who wrote

Amazing Grace

he also wrote a hymn

he says this

thou art coming

to a king

large petitions

with thee bring

for his grace

and power

are such

none

can ever ask

too much

in the name

of the Father

Son

and Holy Spirit

Amen

I want to invite you

just to take a moment

of quiet

as we prepare

to come to this table

Thank you.