Ron Dunn Podcast - Prayer Of All Prayers (Part 3)

Episode Date: September 2, 2020

Ron Dunn speaks on prayer from John 17

Well, I want you to open your Bibles to John chapter 17, John chapter 17, verse 9. I was here at the First Southern Baptist Church in Colorado Springs earlier in the year where J. Badry's pastor. Badry's trying to take over the city, I think. People keep asking me, how do you pronounce Jamal's name? Everybody calls him Jamal, but it's really Jamal. His brother's Jamil, but when you've seen one bad rid, you've seen Jamal. It doesn't matter. But anyway, this church, months before the revival meeting, I would get little cards from people in that church saying, we're praying for you.

We're praying for you. That was encouraging. That meant a lot. Not only that the people would pray for me, but they would write me a note and say, we're praying for you. There's a lady here at this conference, good friend of mine.

She seeks me out and prays with me and for me before every message. I really appreciate that. My wife knows the times that I'm preaching up here and she's praying for me. I don't know how she's doing on painkillers and prayer, but no telling what she's praying. But she's praying for me.

That means a lot. It's encouraging to get letters from people that maybe you've never met. Say, I just want you to know we're praying for you. Many a time after a crisis, God has brought me through it. I've received a letter from somebody saying they had prayed for me. They didn't know anything about the crisis, but they had prayed for me on a certain day. That's encouraging. I thank God for the Lord's people who pray for me. Don't you? Isn't it encouraging to you when somebody says, I'm praying for you?

I want to tell you something. You know what encourages more than anything else? It's that there is one even now praying for me who sits at the right hand of the Father and ever leaves, ever lives to make intercession for us. The great intercessor is the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why the writer of Hebrews is able to say he is able to save to the uttermost. Why?

Because he ever liveth to make intercession for us. First John says in that second chapter, he said, my little children, these things write I unto that you sin not. And the tense there means that you don't commit a single sin. Well, that's the standard, of course. I mean, you couldn't ask God to lower his standard. He's not going to say, I'm writing these things to you so that you don't sin too much.

He said, but that you don't commit a single act of sin. And then he drops down to reality. That's what I like about the Bible. Always comes down to where we live. And then he drops down to reality that's what I like about the Bible always comes down to where we live and then he says and if any man sin and there the sin says and since we do sin and there it is commit a single act of sin he said we have what an advocate with a father Jesus Christ the righteous. Advocate, just a fancy word for lawyer. That's his intercession. And right now at this moment, there is standing in the presence of the Father, one who is pleading my case.

For that's what an advocate does. He doesn't plead my innocence, but he pleads his blood, you see. He's a pretty good lawyer, too, because his father is the judge. I think if you had to go to court and you have a lawyer, find out that the judge is father of your lawyer, you may be a little bit ahead on that one. And he's never lost a case.

And his prayers are always answered. And we have, beginning in verse 9, well, all of this 17th chapter, of course, is a high priestly prayer of Jesus, but we have, beginning in verse 9, the actual intercessory part of that prayer. Intercession always involves three people, at least it involves the person to whom you're praying, which is God. It involves the person who is praying, which is you or which is Christ in

this point, and it involves the person for whom you are praying. Intercession is different than any other kind of praying because it is going to God on the behalf of someone else. And I marvel and I am convicted because having this great tool, this great equipment that God has given me, I do not exercise it more often, but I have the power, the privilege to go into the presence of God and take people with me there and pray for them and lay their needs before the Father and know that the Father hears and will meet those needs. The Bible says that we are a kingdom of priests. We are a priesthood.

You are a priest. I am a priest. A priest is one who goes to God, but he never goes to God simply for himself. He always goes to God on the behalf of someone else. When that high priest entered in to the Holy of Holies there on the Day of Atonement to make a sacrifice for sin, he wasn't doing it just for himself,

but he was doing it for the whole nation. And as a high priest or as a priest of God, I can go into the presence of God not just for himself, but he was doing it for the whole nation. And as a high priest or as a priest of God, I can go into the presence of God, not just for myself, but I can take somebody else with me, and I go on somebody else's behalf. And so here we have what I believe is a preview or a picture of what Jesus is doing right now. And we come to that section I outlined the first day, beginning in verse 9 and through 19, where Jesus prays for his disciples. But really, if you read verse 20, he says,

I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word. So whatever Jesus is praying now for his immediate disciples, he's also praying for us. Now he says, I am asking on their behalf. The word asking there, translated prayer in some translations, is a very interesting, interesting Greek word. There are two Greek words that are normally used for prayer. One is ateo, ateo, wherever you're from, the south or the north, doesn't make any difference, but it, and that is used of men praying to God, and it always implies that the person who is praying is inferior to the one to whom he's praying. Then there is erorato, which is a prayer that indicates the person praying is an equal to the person to whom he's praying.

And every time Jesus prays in the Gospel of John, he uses that word. As a matter of fact, in John 16 and verse 22 or 23, he says, on that day you will ask in my name. There he uses the other word, which means an inferior going to a superior. But then he says, following, I will ask the Father on your behalf. And there he changes the word. It's that word again, which recognizes an equal going to an equal. And so when Jesus prays, he's making requests. He is not, this is not supplication in the sense that you and I supplicate the Lord. That as an inferior, we come to one who is superior, and we plead and beg, and we supplicate them, would you do something on my behalf, or would you do something on this other's behalf?

When Jesus goes, he's not pleading, and he's not bargaining, and he's not supplicating. He is an equal with the one to whom he's praying, and so he's simply making a request. And he says, I pray on their behalf. I am asking on their behalf. I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me. Now, some people have taken that statement where he says, I'm not praying for the world.

And have concluded that we ought never to pray for the lost. I was to do a series of lectures, they called them. You know, it's preaching in churches, but it's lectures in seminary. But I was to do it on prayer. But they wanted manuscripts of what I was going to do so they could look them over before I came out. And I had one lecture on praying for the lost. And they sent that back and said,

it's our school's position that we are not to pray for the lost. Would you submit another lecture, please? And so I did. I wasn't going out there to cause trouble. And so I did. I wasn't going out there to cause trouble, and so I did. But I think it was largely a matter of semantics. But you can't take this verse and say that Jesus tells us that we are to never to pray for the world. For a few hours later, Jesus on the cross prays for the world, prays for his enemies when he says, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

And Paul said, my prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. I believe it is scripturally proper for us to pray for those who are lost. The Bible says that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us and the Bible says God is not willing that any should perish and my own opinion which I highly respect is this I believe that if God puts somebody on your heart a lost person on your heart and you can't get away from that burden that's on your heart.

I believe God is calling you to pray especially on their behalf. And if you pray faithfully and you intercede for that person, I believe they will eventually be saved. Because God never burdens a heart to mock us. He always burdens our heart in order to lift that burden. People often say, how do you know what to pray for? I say, I pray in the direction of my burden. Whatever is a burden on my heart, that's what I pray for. That's the way I preach. I preach in the direction of my burden. Whatever my heart's burdened about, that's what I preach. God puts the burden there, not to mock me, not so that I'll

have a burden, but in order that he might release that burden and lift that burden. And when I preach what is on my heart, when I have preached, I have delivered what? My burden, as the old saints used to call it that. They've delivered their burden, you see. So I believe that when God burdens your heart for a specific individual and you take up the position of intercessor on their behalf, I believe that eventually God will be saved. They will be saved. God's already saved, of course I know. They will be saved. I'm having some senior moments this morning. I just want to warn you ahead of time, you're going to have to, I had a bad night, and boy, arthritis has really invaded me, and I'm not all here. So just cut me a little slack and say he's

an old man. I can remember when he used to be able to think clearly, but we're going to cut him some slack. All right? So Jesus prays for his disciples. Now, why does he pray for them? Why does he pray? I want to share with you about four reasons why the Lord Jesus prays for his disciples. And the first one is this.

He says, I am asking on their behalf. I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me because they are yours. Why does Jesus Christ intercede for us? Because we are God's. We belong to him. we are the possession of the heavenly father you gave them to me but they are yours and therefore since they are yours then you must take an interest in them you must regard them and you must watch over them

and you must protect them because they belong to you. You see, your interest, Father, is wrapped up in their well-being. We share a mutual interest. And just like any father, he wants to do everything he can to meet the needs of his child and to watch over that child and to protect them and to comfort them and to give them the things that they need. So Jesus prays for us, and the first reason he prays for us is because we're his. Isn't that wonderful? To know that we belong to him. I mean, I'm his special property. I'm somebody, folks. I don't know, you may not think so, but I'm somebody.

Now, you never heard of my dad or my parentage, and I didn't come over on the Mayflower, and neither did any of my ancestors. Everybody that's told me the Mayflower, they came over on the Mayflower. Mayflower must have been as big as a Queen Mary for all the people to claim to come over on it. But I didn't come over the Mayflower. I was already here, I think. My great, great, great, great grandfather was a lesser chief of Cherokee Nation. And his name was Billy Yellow Horse,

and he married a French woman. And in those days when an Indian married a white woman, he had to take a white man's name. And so his name was Yellow Horse, and he changed it to Dunn, D-U-N. Anybody who knows anything about horses knows that a yellow horse is called a Dunn horse. And I always get these things from Ireland, you know, because Dunn is a typically Irish name. And I always get these things from Ireland, trying to trace back my family tree. Oh, you can't trace back my family tree. I mean, they were here before Columbus got here. So anyway, but you never heard of my dad.

And I don't have any, but he was a great man, but you never heard of him. But, and so I can't brag that my dad was the president of this or president of that. But I want to tell you something, folks. I have a father who is the creator of heaven and earth. And a father God, omniscient and omnipotent and omnipresent and I'm his. And I love it in Hebrews when it says he will not be ashamed to be called our God.

Sometimes I've been ashamed to call him my children, my children. I don't know these kids, never seen them before in my life. They just followed us, they't know these kids. I've never seen them before in my life. They just followed us into the restaurant. I've never seen them before in my life. And yet it's amazing God is not ashamed to be called our God. He's proud of us.

And so Jesus says, I pray for these, Father, in the first place because they're yours. They belong to you. Therefore, you have a responsibility to care for them because they're yours. And you've made an investment. Then there is a second reason, and it kind of reads, kind of doubles back on itself. He says in verse 11, or is it verse 10? Yeah, it's verse 10. He says, all mine are yours, and yours are mine.

All mine are yours, and yours are mine. I think about that for a moment what in the world is he talking about well they belong to the father first he gave them the Jesus Jesus gave them back to the father for he says in other places as well as in John, he said, everything that the Father has is mine, and everything that I have is the Father. And you have me, your son, and you have me, the believer, and the Son has me, and the Son has you, so we're all wrapped up together. We share mutual interests. We share mutual concerns. Therefore, God has a right, or Christ has a right, to pray to the Father for me because, you see, my concerns are His concerns, and His concerns are to be my concerns. We're concerned about each other. All of us are in this together, God the

Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, and Ron Dunn. We're all in this together. We're all in business together. We're involved with each other. We have a mutual interest in each other. And so it is in the Father's best interest, if I can put it in that human way, it is in the Father's best interest that Christ pray for me. Why? Because we're all connected together. And if I suffer, the cause of the Father suffers. If I fall, the cause of the Father suffers. If I fall, the cause of the Father falls.

If I bring shame upon myself, I bring shame upon my Heavenly Father and upon Christ and upon the Holy Spirit. And so He has a right to pray for me. He prays for me because between me and the Godhead and you and the Godhead, there is a mutual concern. We're all in the same boat together. And what is a concern in the heart of man is a concern in the heart of God. See, God has to be concerned with

what I'm concerned about because we're in this together. And I need to be concerned with what God is concerned about. Well, there is a third reason. This is really astounding. He says in verse 11, And I have been glorified in them. I have been glorified in them. What? You're talking about these disciples, that rag-tag bunch of uneducated, unlearned, ignorant people? You say over here they kept your word,

but they didn't keep it perfectly. They had a narrow insight. They were dull of understanding. They were just messing up everywhere. Every time Peter opened his mouth, he inserted his foot in it. Do you mean to tell me that Jesus was glorified in that bunch of immature nobodies who didn't understand half of what he said.

And even after the resurrection, still didn't understand. Because after the resurrection, they said, Lord, now will you bring the kingdom. Now will you restore the kingdom. Even after all of that, they still were dull of understanding. And yet Jesus says, I have been glorified in them, in these disciples who were so dense. And I sometimes wonder if they did not disappoint Jesus

on the greatest day of his earthly existence. And I'm talking about the resurrection, on the greatest day of his earthly existence. I'm talking about the resurrection, because when Jesus came out of that grave that day, there was not a single person to meet him, not a single disciple to greet him. No one was there. And yet he had said over and over again, on the third day, I'll rise.

If those disciples had not been so dull of understanding, they would have said, boy, we're going to camp there. We're going to be there on that third day. We're going to see when our Lord comes back to life and is raised. We're not going to miss that. But they were so weak, so ignorant, so slow to understand. And yet Jesus says, isn't this amazing? I'm glorified in them. Well, means he's glorified in me too. and in you. How can that be? I know my own heart. I know how many times I fail the Lord. I know how many times I pass up opportunities

to help people when I ought to, to be like Christ. There's so many times when I am not like Christ, and yet he says that he's glorified in me. You see, we glorify Jesus in the first place because we believe on him, believe in him. We accept his word. By the way, have you noticed the progression here? The Father gave the Son the word,

and the Son gave the disciples the Word, and the disciples are going to give the world the Word, and they're going to be saved. You see, it's all passing down the Word, isn't it? You never get away from the Word. And the Father oversees His Word, and He's careful who He passes it to. And when I embrace that Word,

and I give evidences of election, that's another reason that Christ prays for us and that the Father ought to be concerned about it. I've given evidences of election because I have persevered. I have failed. I have failed. I have failed. But I still this morning believe that Jesus Christ is God's Son and He was sent from the Father and that Him and Him alone is eternal life. And that brings glory to Jesus. And when I live a Christlike life in those too rare times

when I do express a Christlike love for somebody and extend a Christlike hand to somebody, I am glorifying Him. Isn't it amazing that you and I, as feeble and as weak as we are, we could actually glorify Jesus? Well, there's a final one, and most Bible scholars don't list this they they they list it with the Jesus next is going to pay pray for their protection and this is a part of that but

it's also a part of the reason for his praying for them in verse 11 I got that they they print 11. They print these verse numbers so small I can't see them. Anyway, it's that verse that comes right after he says, I've been glorified in them. And now, I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I'm coming to you. I believe this was one of the chief reasons that Christ prays for us, prays for those disciples. Why? Because he said, I'm leaving this place. I'm out of here. I'm leaving this world.

But they're not. They're going to be stuck here in this world, which he goes on to say that hates them and will persecute them and eventually put most of them to death. Well, the disciples must have really been scared over in John chapter 14. He kept talking about going away, going away, going away. And then I think it's in the 18th verse he says, don't worry, I will not leave you.

And King James says, I will not leave you comfortless. The exact translation is, I will not leave you as helpless orphans. He must have seen the despair on their faces. When he said, I'm going away, and they thought to themselves, oh, what are we going to do? We're not going to be able to ask him things. We're not going to be able to follow him. We're not going to be able to have him here on earth to help us

and to get us out of the messes we get ourselves into. What am I going to do? I'm going to be like an orphan. He says, listen, Father, I pray for them because I'm leaving them here in this world. And they will not survive in this world without my intercession. So he prays for us.

He prays for us he prays for us because we're his we give evidences of election we have mutual interest we glorify him and he's leaving he's gone but isn't it wonderful that he's still praying for us He's gone.

But isn't it wonderful that he's still praying for us? I tell you, I appreciate that. He's praying for us. I love, I believe in intercession. I have told this story here before, but the first time I ever remembered or recalled anybody actually committing themselves to intercede for me was when I was a young man still in college, unmarried, and I was preaching a revival meeting up in Little Rock, Arkansas. It was my wife-to-be's church. I want to tell you something, boy. It was dead.

No, Alistair, it was dead. It was dead. Not many people were coming. I'd open a Bible and nobody else would open theirs. Pastor didn't even bring his Bible. Nobody cared. I want to tell you something, folks.

You can backslide while you're preaching. I've done it. I got the attitude if they don't care, I don't care. Why should I care if they don't care? It's their church. They're meeting. I don't care anything about it. I don't care anything about it. And so I'd preach my sermon. I'd go back to motel and watch television. Well, on Saturday night, I was walking up to the church, and I heard somebody call my name. And I looked, and parked out there at the curb in front of the church was a black Rambler you remember the old Nash Rambler here was a

black Nash Rambler station wagon parked out there at the curb in front of this church and I recognized it it was Kay's grandmother's car. And her grandmother was behind the wheel. And she waved at me. She said, Ronnie. That's what they called me then. Said, Ronnie, come here. Come here.

I went over there. And I said, hello, Mrs. Cook. And I noticed that there were. And Mrs. Cook was a large woman. I mean large. And she had three other large women. And they were all scrunched together in the front seat of that Rambler.

I never could understand that. They were all scrunched together in the front seat of that Rambler. And I bent down and the car went and I said, how you doing, Miss Cook? She reached out with an arm as big as a Virginia hound

and she grabbed me by the nape of my neck and almost pulled me into that car. And she said, young man, I just want you to know that while you're in there preaching tonight, there are going to be three old ladies out here praying for you. Oh, it made a difference.

I went through that sermon. All I could think about was three old ladies scrunched together in the front seat of a rambler station wagon praying for me. But friends, you say, did it make a difference? I tell you, it did make a difference. I believe in intercession. I believe in intercession. I believe in it. When we, our boy died,

many of you know this, when he was 18, 1975, he took his life on Thanksgiving Day. He was manic depressive. Well, a tough thing. Well, his birthday is October the 13th. And I looked ahead on my calendar after a while,

and I saw that October 13th, 1976, I was going to be in Georgia in a revival meeting. I'm a melancholic I think I guess and I I get depressed just about over anything and I knew that that first birthday you know those of you who lost other than like that you had to go through a couple of Christmases a couple of birthdays before you can handle it and I knew that that first birthday was going to be terrible and I didn't want to be alone in some motel thousand miles away and I didn't want Kay to be alone so I I called the pastor, explained the situation.

He excused me from the meeting. So I was home that week. And all week long, I dreaded Wednesday. 13th fell on Wednesday. I dreaded it, boy. Monday, I dreaded it. Tuesday, I dreaded it. I knew that Wednesday was going to be full of black thoughts and regrets and what-ifs, and I was going to be plunged into despair and depression.

Well, Wednesday came, and we woke up Wednesday morning, and I tell you what, there were no black clouds. I mean, there were no morbid thoughts. There were no recriminations or regrets. I mean, there was no depression. I tried to depress myself, and I couldn't do it. Well, about five o'clock, I gathered the family together. We went out to the cemetery, and we stood around Ronnie's grave, and we sang a hymn and prayed and then went to church. And nobody was expecting me at church that Wednesday night because I was supposed to be out in a meeting.

So we walked in, and the minute I got in the auditorium, there was a woman over in the far corner, and she saw us, and she rushed over to me. And she grabbed my hand, and she said, Brother Don, you're here. I said, right, yeah, I'm here. She said, what's been going on with you today? I mean, what's been happening with you today? And I said, well, what do you mean? And she said, well, Lord woke me up about 5 a.m. this morning

with you and your family on my heart. And all day long, I've been able to do nothing and think of nothing but you and your family. And I've just, without ceasing, have prayed and interceded for you. And I knew just, without ceasing, have prayed and interceded for you. And I knew that, of course, she didn't know the significance of that day, see. But she said, I knew something must be going on. I looked at Kay and we smiled at each other and understood why that day had been such a great day.

And I know that there are others praying for us. Folks, I want to say to you, I thank God for three old women who have scrunched together in the front seat of a Rambler to pray for a young backslidden preacher. I thank God for sensitive people like that dear lady who will rise early in the morning and spend the day praying for me. But you know what I'm most thankful for this morning?

I'm thankful that my Lord is right now face to face with the Father saying, help that boy. He needs it. Christ, the intercessor. The Ron Dunn Podcast is available only for personal edification, not to be duplicated, uploaded to the web, or resold without prior written consent. It is managed and operated by Sherwood Baptist Church. If you would like to listen to additional Ron Dunn messages, visit sherwoodbaptist.net slash bookstore and search Ron Dunn. For more Ron Dunn materials, including sermon outlines,

devotions, and scanned pages from a study Bible, please visit rondunn.com.