You Have A Savior Who Is Praying For You, I Promise! Series

A. Over the years, I have enjoyed reading Readers’ Digest and especially the humor sections.

1. One of the humor sections is called “All in a Day’s Work” where people write in humorous things that happen at work.

2. Here’s a good one someone submitted: Confiding in a co-worker, I told her about a problem in our office and my fear that I would lose my job. I know my co-worker keeps a list of 10 people she believes need her prayers the most, so I asked her if she had room for me on her prayer list.

a. “Oh yes, I have space on my prayer list, because three of the people who I have been praying for have died.” (Kaye Gordon, R. Digest, 6/01 p. 64)

b. When we are looking for someone to intercede for us, we are looking for a prayer intercessor with better results than that, right?!

B. As you know, we are in a sermon series called “Hope – The Anchor of God’s Promises.

1. We have been examining the promises of God that give us great hope.

2. So far we have examined these promises:

a. Death is not the end of life.

b. You are somebody important to God.

c. You have a priceless and limitless spiritual inheritance.

3. Two weeks ago, we explored the promise: You Can Defeat Your Enemy, the Devil.

a. We are following up that promise with several promises that lead to our spiritual victory.

b. Last week we were reminded that we have a Savior who understands us and can help us.

C. Today we are going to explore this amazing and wonderful promise: You Have a Savior Who is Praying for You!

1. Allow that truth and promise sink into your heart and mind.

2. Jesus, our Savior, Lord, and Friend, is in heaven praying for you and for me.

D. So, where does the Bible tell us about that promise and truth?

1. Isaiah 53 is the amazing prophesy about Jesus the suffering servant.

a. Look at Isaiah 53:12: Therefore I will give him the many as a portion, and he will receive the mighty as spoil, because he willingly submitted to death, and was counted among the rebels; yet he bore the sin of many and interceded for the rebels.

b. Even before Jesus came to earth, it was determined that His mission would include bearing the sins of the world and being one who intercedes for the rebellious.

2. Look at Romans 8:34b: Christ Jesus is the one who died, but even more, has been raised; he also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us.

a. So, where is Jesus? He is at the right hand of God.

b. And what is Jesus doing? He is interceding for us.

3. Look at Hebrews 7:25: Therefore, he [Jesus] is able to save completely those who come to God through him, since he always lives to intercede for them.

a. I am so captivated by that phrase: He always lives to intercede for them.

b. The thing that Jesus loves doing more than anything else is interceding for us.

c. Interceding for us is what He lives for!

4. And so, not only does the Bible predict that Jesus would become an intercessor, and then tell us that after He came and returned to the Father’s right hand He is interceding for us, the Bible also shows us a few examples of Jesus being an intercessor.

E. Allow me to ask this seemingly obvious question: why does Jesus need to intercede for us?

1. The simple and straight-forward answer is because we need it.

2. And why do we need it? Because as we live our lives, we inevitably face the storms of life and are constantly engaged in the spiritual battle.

3. This is one of the spiritual realities that believers have to come to grips with.

4. Many people end up with the mistaken notion that when they decide to become a Christian they will receive a pass on the troubles and tribulations of life.

5. But that false expectation crashes quickly on the rocks of reality.

6. The truth of the matter is this: We live in a spiritual battle zone and life in this world comes with storms.

7. You will remember that Jesus assured us of this fact: “In this world you will have trouble” (John 16:33).

8. Storms will come at you and me, just like they came against Jesus’ first disciples.

F. Let’s go to Matthew 14 and take a look at an episode in the lives of those first followers of Jesus.

1. The Bible says: 22 Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. 23 After dismissing the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. Well into the night, he was there alone. 24 Meanwhile, the boat was already some distance from land, battered by the waves, because the wind was against them (Matthew 14:22-24).