Last week we looked at the foundational parts of having a close encounter with God. (Close Encounters with God) We saw how God wants to meet with us every day and that face to face encounter begins with our welcoming him. Then we worship him. We pour out our hearts to him. And finally we listen to his voice. We saw all this as we looked at Abraham welcoming the Lord and his angels to his home. They had great news – Sarah would have a child. What a great blessing!
This morning we are continuing on in Genesis 18 to see one more crucial part of having a close encounter with God which involves praying God’s will into effect – in other words, intercession.
Let’s read 18:20-33…
DISCOURAGEMENT IN PRAYER
One of the reasons prayer is hard and sometimes discouraging, is that we simply don’t see answers to our prayers. We pray and pray and pray and nothing seems to happen. We know that God desires all to be saved according to the Scripture. So we pray for salvation of our loved ones and nothing seems to happen. We pray for revival in our city, and evil continues to rise. Over and over again, we pray according to what seems to be God’s will, and over and over again our prayers go unanswered. I have over 15 books on spiritual revival in my library and have preached about it, taught about it and prayed for it in Czech, in Poland, here in Mankato and have yet to see revival break out before my eyes. That can be discouraging!
If God so desired, he could force all unbelievers to recognize Him as the Lord and Savior and cause them to repent and give their lives to Him. What if he did that? He could have taken Sodom and Gomorrah and converted both cities and thousands of people would be saved from Hell thanks to Abraham’s prayer. Why doesn’t he do that?
He doesn’t do it because he wants us to love him because we choose to love him. What kind of love is it that is forced. No one wants to be loved out of duty. Imagine the husband telling his wife – “I love you because I just have to – I must – you’re my spouse and the pastor married us – I don’t want to be single all my life – so I will love you because that’s my duty.” Or a man who locks his wife away in a room, even out of kindness good intentions is not a lover but an abuser. So also a parent who never lets his child out of the house for fear that he will get hurt is not an action that will help but hurt him.
God doesn’t lock us into a relationship with him because he wants our eyes to be opened to see that we are lost and we need him, that he loves us and provides for us. He wants us to be crushed by the law and to willingly turn our lives over to Him.
So when we pray for our lost loved ones, God will not force them to that decision. You can pray day and night and it will not force that person to be saved. Then how does prayer fit into this?
THE LORD REVEALS THE NEED
Abraham met with the Lord and the Lord revealed what was about to happen – Abraham overheard the Lord saying that he was ready to judge Sodom and Gomorrah for their sins (vs. 20-21). God clued him in on what was about to happen. Why did God do that? He didn’t have to do that – he could have just gone down and destroyed those wicked cities. He did it because he wanted to allow Abraham the opportunity to intercede. He wants to work through Abraham’s prayer.
What has the Lord brought to YOUR attention? What information has the Lord revealed to you? Do you see the lost? Do you see the great danger they are in? Don’t get disheartened but use what the Lord reveals to motivate your prayers. He reveals it for that reason!
Dawson Trotman, founder of the Navigators, tells the story of a 23 year old Sailor that he spent time discipling. He spent many hours with this young man in the Word and the importance of being a witness for the Lord and leading other sailors to Jesus.
A month later the sailor returned to Dawson: “I can’t get any of these guys on the ship to get down to business.” Dawson replied: “Listen, you ask God to give you one. You can’t have two until you have one. Ask God to give you a man after your own heart.”
He began to pray. One day he came to Dawson and said “I think I’ve found him.” The young man came to Dawson and eventually he received the Lord. Then as these two young men continued to grow, they also continued to spiritually reproduce. Eventually, 125 men from that very ship found the Savior. Men off that first battleship are in four continents of the world as missionaries today. What was the key? Prayer for ONE man – just ONE.
Abraham interceded for his nephew Lot who was living in Sodom. And later the angels came down to his home and Lot agreed to leave with his family before the destruction of Sodom. His life was saved! Who would the Lord put on YOUR heart?
GOD PAVES THE WAY FOR SALVATION
As we saw, God will not force anyone to be saved. But he will reveal himself. How?
Through A CRISIS OF PAIN. As C.S. Lewis once wrote: “Pain is God’s megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” When we ignore God, he simply must turn up the volume. He will use pain and suffering to wake us up to the reality of the road we are taking. The prodigal son was awakened to his road leading to destruction as he ended up groveling in the pigsty sharing the food with the swine. That is the mercy of God! Had that man continued to do well and succeed away from his father, he would have ended up satisfied to live in the world and far from God.
In answer to your prayer, He will reveal himself through the CONSCIENCE. There is one thing much more painful than physical suffering and that is pain of the soul. King David recalls the pain he went through from guilt in Psalm 32:3-4 “For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.” Without the forgiveness of the Lord, every single person suffers from guilt. We can harden ourselves to it so that we don’t feel the pain, try to excuse it, or we simply suffer under its heavy burden. It turns to sorrow, to grief, to anger, to legalism, to rejection of self. There are many ways it is manifested. But there is only one cure to a guilty conscience and that is receiving the forgiveness offered through Jesus Christ.
In answer to your prayer, He will reveal himself through the WORD OF GOD. Maybe that word will be heard on the radio, maybe on the TV, maybe in the words of a co-worker, maybe that person will pick up a Bible on a whim and start reading and God will speak.
Through your prayer, God will act and do all these things. He will reveal himself. He will send angels in response just as he did when Abraham prayed. He will send circumstances that will confront that person with the danger ahead.
In answer to your prayer, He will reveal himself THROUGH YOUR TESTIMONY. Prayer is the key. But when we go down that road, we have to be ready with a testimony of love. God answers that prayer of ours by giving us opportunities to reveal Jesus by our words and actions. Our witness to every one of those people is absolutely vital.
People who are lost are simply living according to the way they were born – live like the world. We are born in sin and therefore we live that way – it’s NORMAL. Why would we expect people to be loving and kind and moral and right? That’s supernatural. That’s takes the work of God because we’re naturally selfish and self-seeking. Why would we expect people to stay sober? Why would we expect people to shun homosexuality when the world says that’s an acceptable lifestyle? We should expect all these things as a normal part of life outside of being a believer.
So, prayer is the starting point – the key to the door - and a witness of love and unconditional acceptance is the way to get the door open. John 8:3, 10 "The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, … Jesus stood up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more."
How did Jesus bring the prostitute to salvation? She was caught in the midst of the act itself. She was guilty! He loved her and received her. He hated what she did – he didn’t approve of her sin. But how did he reach her? Through love and mercy.
Pastor Mark Buchanan puts it this way: “We treat people like they already belong to God in order to invite them to belong to God. We treat them as brothers and sisters so that they might become brothers and sisters. Our appeal for anyone to be reconciled to God is rooted in a demonstration of reconciliation: we accept them first. This acceptance is a prelude, a foretaste, a heralding of God’s acceptance of them. We, like Jesus, do not condemn the world: we are a light within it.”
So what does this mean for us? If we want to go down this road – “make disciples of all nations” – it is going to cost every one of us. We need to start with intercessory prayer. Pray for the lost. And specifically, that means for you to ask God to give you one person. Some of you already have a relative you have been praying for for years. But this morning I’m talking about asking God to lead you to someone else – just like that sailor did. Your personal mission project. That’s the first step.
Secondly, no matter who it is, pour out your love, grace, and mercy on that person. No matter what their background, treat that person as a brother – as a sister – as a precious gift. The only way to get someone out of the muck is to get in there with them and help them out. Jump in and show the love and mercy of Christ.
There is no guarantee anyone will be saved. God will not make it happen. But he WILL pave the way and the circumstances for a new birth. Just imagine, as God provides someone for each one of us, we could see hundreds or even thousands of souls brought to salvation! Will you take on the challenge with me?
