Theological term
Intercessory Prayer
8 sermons · All terms
The biggest benefit of church associations
Church associations among Reformed Baptist congregations find their deepest rationale not in organizational efficiency but in the mutual burden-bearing and intercessory prayer that Scripture commands. Drawing on 2 Corinthians 1:11 and Colossians 4:12, this address argues that prayer is the primary and most transferable form of help one congregation can render another, even across great distances. The sermon proper expounds Psalm 131 as the theological and devotional ground for the humility that makes genuine association life possible.
The Intercession of Moses for the People, Judgement by God, and Folly of Israel
Numbers 14 records the aftermath of Israel's refusal to enter Canaan, and this exposition works through three movements in verses 11–45: Moses' intercession before a holy God, God's measured judgment upon the faithless generation, and Israel's final act of presumptuous folly. Moses' prayer is examined as a model of bold, Scripture-grounded intercession — appealing to God's reputation among the nations, His covenant character revealed in Exodus 34, and the precedent of His patient mercy. The chapter ultimately teaches that faithless cowardice is the fruit of rejecting the living God, that covenant-breaking brings assured judgment, and that faith in God's promises is the only ground of genuine courage.
The Intercessory Prayer of the Apostle
Paul's intercessory prayer in Philippians 1:9–11 reveals what the apostle most deeply desires for the church: not comfort or relief from suffering, but abounding love anchored in knowledge and discernment, sincere and blameless conduct persevering to the day of Christ, and good fruit borne entirely by the agency of Jesus Christ to the glory of God. The sermon works through two main petitions — the disposition of the heart (vv. 9–10a) and the actions of the life (vv. 10b–11) — showing that love divorced from sound theology produces sentimentalism, while theology divorced from discernment produces loveless pride. The whole is framed by the Pauline conviction that from justification by faith alone flows the life of sanctification, and that every fruit of righteousness is not the cause but the consequence of God's grace, rendered ultimately to the glory and praise of God.
The Whole Armor of God, Part 2
The sword of the Spirit and the necessity of prayer form the offensive weapons of the whole armor of God in Ephesians 6:17–24. This exposition argues that the church is constituted as the pillar and ground of the truth and must wield the Word of God against spiritual enemies rather than substituting entertainment, therapeutic programming, or institutional management for gospel proclamation. Prayer is examined through its manner — constant, Spirit-dependent, watchful, and persevering — and its objects: intercession for all the saints and for gospel boldness in the ministry of the Word. The close of the epistle is read as a benediction grounding grace and peace in the Trinitarian life of God.
The Command to Remember the Prisoners
Hebrews 13:3 commands believers to 'remember the prisoners as if chained with them' — not as a vague awareness, but as an active, continual concern that issues in prayer, correspondence, advocacy, and tangible aid. The sermon traces the biblical pattern of righteous suffering from Joseph and Jeremiah through the apostolic era, demonstrating that enmity against the people of God is not an anomaly but an expectation rooted in Genesis 3:15. The command is grounded in the solidarity of the one body: those who enjoy liberty share membership with those who suffer chains, and to forget the persecuted church is a failure of brotherly love. Believers are called to cultivate a global, intercessory prayer-life that refuses to confine concern to the local congregation, and to find in Christ's worth the courage to rejoice if they themselves are called to suffer.
Exodus 17
Exodus 17 presents Israel's double failure at Rephidim: a murmuring complaint against Moses for lack of water, and then the subsequent victory over the Amalekites through Moses's upraised rod and Joshua's sword. The murmuring is exposed not merely as weakness but as theological insult — the question 'Is the Lord among us or not?' impugns the faithfulness of a God who has already split the sea, rained bread from heaven, and sworn to bring His people to the land of promise. The sermon draws out two counterbalancing lessons: the unrelenting faithfulness of God despite His people's unbelief, and the Reformed doctrine that divine sovereignty does not eliminate the use of means — Israel must both hold up the rod in dependence on God and swing the sword in disciplined obedience.
Genesis 20:1-18
Genesis 20 records Abraham's deceptive half-truth to Abimelech, king of Gerar — a relapse into the same sin committed in Egypt — and God's sovereign intervention to protect both Sarah's honor and the line of promised seed. The passage reveals that not every pagan city is a Sodom: God's common grace produces genuine integrity in Abimelech, whom the Lord acknowledges and restrains, while Abraham's fear exposes a distrust of divine providence that God graciously overcomes. The birth of Isaac in chapter 21 is secured not by human faithfulness but by the sovereign God who closes and opens wombs, curses those who threaten His covenant people, and blesses those who bless them. The sermon calls believers to rest in the past faithfulness of God as a present argument against fear and self-protective deception.
The Exhortation to Pray, Part 2
James 5:16–18 calls every believer — not a spiritual elite — to confess sins to one another, to intercede for one another, and to pray with the confidence that the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. The 'righteous man' of verse 16 is not a super-saint but any person justified by faith alone in Christ alone, whose imputed righteousness gives boldness at the throne of grace. Elijah is set before the church not as a larger-than-life wonder-worker but as a man of like passions — weak, despondent, yet prevailing in prayer — precisely so that ordinary believers will not despair of their own access to God. The sermon closes with a searching examination: are God's people truly prayerful as individuals, as families, as elders, and as a congregation?