Teach Us To Pray: Divine Intercession - Rich Villodas

tonight's teaching text is from the book of Acts chapter 12 verses 1 through 17 it was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church intending to persecute them he had James the brother of John put to death with the sword when he saw that this was met with approval among the Jews he proceeded to seize Peter also this happened during the festival of unleavened bread after arresting him he put him in prison handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover so Peter was kept in prison but the church was earnestly praying to God for him the night before Herod was to bring him to trial Peter was sleeping between two soldiers bound with two chains and sentries stood guard at the entrance suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell he struck Peter on the side and woke him up quick get up he said and the chains fell off Peters wrists then the angel said to him put on your clothes and sandals and Peter did so wrapped your cloak around you and follow me the angel told him Peter followed him out of the prison but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening he thought that he was seeing a vision they passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city it opened for them by itself and they went through it when they had walked the length of one Street suddenly the angel left him then Peter came to himself and said now I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod's clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen when this had dawned on him he went to the house of Mary the mother of John also called mark where many people had gathered and were praying Peter knocked at the outer entrance and a servant named Baroda came to answer the door when she recognized Peters voice she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed Peters at the door you're out of your mind they told her when she kept insisting that it was so they said it must be his angel but Peter kept on knocking and when they opened the door and saw him they were astonished Peter motioned with his hand for them to be quiet and described how the Lord had brought him out of and tell James and the other brothers and sisters about this he said and then he left for another place this is the word of the Lord now tonight we're very fortunate to have a guest speaker with us a man who is a pastor in New York born and raised in New York and is a part of New Life Queens which is one of the pillar churches in this city and is a guy that John and I just have endless respect for and as somebody that we're very very very excited to have come talk to us tonight about what intercession looks like so would you please welcome rich Valois all right good evening everyone so good to be here with you I when John and invited me to to speak here it was I think it was in June and I was at JFK Airport with my wife heading to California and to add a speaking engagement and John said hey would you mate would you come and preach in in August and I said yeah what date and we went back and forth and I look up and he didn't see me but john theisen was right there in front of me there we were texting back and forth what a New York City moment this is you know eight million people here and we're just like 20 feet from each other and so I'm glad to be able to to be here tonight I passed on New Life Fellowship Church in in Elmhurst Queens new life is 31 years old I've been the lead pastor there for the past six years we are a wonderful community we have over 75 nations represented in our church National Geographic has us as the most diverse ZIP code in the world in Queens 123 languages spoken at the nearby hospital Elmhurst Hospital and to take out $20 at the local ATM is it's a journey it's an adventure there about 20 options to take out $20 and so moreover whenever there's tensions in the life of our church and the life of the world we experience them in the life of our church and so we have police officers and black lives matter protesters 50% of our church I would say voted for Hillary Clinton 50% voted for Donald Trump during the World Cup there was a lot of drama in my church during the World Cup when South Korea beat Germany the Germans weren't praying with South Korea I what a mess what a I had to pray for that thing to be over Lord you kidding me get this thing over with you're dividing the church here Lord so uh and of course when there's pain in the world disasters natural disasters and such our church experienced it very profoundly and so it's a wonderful community and we've learned a lot about prayer over our 31 years and you you're in a series focusing on prayer and one of the aspects of prayer that I'm going to be teasing out today is intercessory prayer and what does it mean for our lives to be marked by intercession marked by calling upon the name of the Lord for the sake of the world and so I want to pray invite the Holy Spirit to open our eyes our ears our hearts that he would shape our hearts and and this church here in our city as a whole as we call on his name let's pray together Lord Jesus Lord we offer this time to you and ask that you would speak to us profoundly through your word and Lord open our ears that we may hear what you want us to hear open our eyes so that we may see what you want us to see and open our hearts that we would receive every gift we have that you want to give to us this evening we offer this time to you it's in Jesus name we pray and everyone said amen when I speak at a church for the first time I like to share a little bit of my story I believe that my life was transformed in great part because I had people praying for me I had family members praying for me I had grandparents praying for me I've been a follower of Jesus for the past 20 years but I did not grow up in the church I actually grew up in a home that was quite indifferent to the church my father was a weakened alcoholic and never went to church because he believed that God his sins were too great that God wouldn't receive him my mother on the other hand was a moralist that is she thought because she did good things over the bad thing she didn't and so my father thought that God wouldn't receive him my mother thought that she didn't need him and so as a result we wouldn't go to church together as a family but they would send me to church with my grandparents right around the corner a little Spanish Latino Pentecostal church got a goddess out of us young they would send me to this little church with my grandparents I used to think that my parents were interested in my spiritual development interested in my spiritual formation which is why they sent me to this church with my grandparents it turns out that because these Latino Pentecostal services have five-hour services you get a good child care that way we get good challenge you get a lot done in five hours they grocery shopping watching movies and so they say go go to the Catholic Church go to the the Pentecostal church home at five our services and so I'd go to that church as a five year old as a six year old as a seven year old the only time my parents would come to church was during Christmas and during Easter and of course I was in the Christmas plays I was in the the Easter plays I was always the lame man who jesus healed the blind man who Jesus gave sight to I'd acted out so well my mother would be crying on the side and all that there but that was the extent to which my parents would come to church and the extent to which I would go to church I grew up thinking because it was a Latino church that Jesus had some Puerto Rican in him I'm to this day I believe that Jesus has a little bit of Puerto Rican in him they say called him his shoes they said Bimini though they said throw the lowboy Oh increased okay me for that let's say they said all that said to this day I believe Jesus has got to be a Puerto Rican Jew and so and so I would go to this church and for a number of years not really understand it was a language gap but I really understand what was happening all the time by 12 years of age I said mom dad can I stop going to the church and they said yes you don't have to go to church any longer and it was at that moment that I felt like I was saying saved from the church no longer that I have to go to the church any longer and so for a period about five years I stopped attending this church by the time I was 17 years old however I found myself back in the church because I started dating a pastor's daughter and that'll get you back in the church very quickly very quickly the guy said the only way you can date my daughter is if you come to church I said I'm there I'll be there he didn't say what time though and so I'd come in the last 10 minutes of the service I'd sneak in it's like somebody's doing right now I just sneak in the back of the church there and and ten minutes at the end of the service there I come in and then he say rich what did you think about the message that it was fantastic and I learned very quickly that if he just said Jesus and if you just said sin and because it was an Assemblies of God Church if you said hell a lot and baby everybody was going to hell and this Assemblies of God Church if you just said sin and Jesus in hell you got the right answer so how was it fantastic what was the sermon about Jesus of course sin hell the Holy Spirit and all of that so I would go to this church for a number of years dating this pastor's daughter and after about two to three years the relationship came to an end and I don't know if there's anything that will bring people to Jesus like teenage broken heart there's nothing that I'll bring you to Jesus faster than a broken teenage heart and so one night this relationship ended I was about 18 turning nineteen years of age and I was so depressed I I decided to walk from Glendale Queens to East New York Brooklyn I grew up in East New York section of Brooklyn Glendale so it's about an hour-and-a-half journey I'm slowly just the press just walking down all the press of what's happening and I go into the house and I noticed that it's moaning my father and mother in the house I'm the eldest of five my brother my three sisters were not there my father was home coming off of a hangover and watching the the Jets play football not a good combination but he was doing all that and my mother was cooking in the kitchen I said hey where's Jason was Laura where's Michelle where's Melissa they said they're at a church which was strange because we never went to church as a family nor that we go to church as individuals and yet my siblings decided to go to church because they were invited by a family member because they said there was some kind of special service going on so I decided to follow my siblings into the church only because I was brokenhearted I was thinking maybe someone can pray for me it was the same church that I was healed from my lameness and my blindness and the church plays and so certainly someone would have a word of the Lord for me as I went into the service here and so I went into the service and it's typically a church that has about 30 to 40 people there was a revival happening there was about ninety to a hundred people in a small narrow long church and as I walked into the back of this church they were singing some songs in Spanish about Satan having to leave and because of the power of Jesus and that's one thing that US Latino Pentecostals do sometimes we sing more about Satan than we do about Jesus but they were singing about Satan having to leave I walked in as they're talking about Satan thinking I hope they're not talking about me I just walked into the church and so they're singing about Satan has to leave in the name of Jesus I set towards the the end of the back of the service there and about 10 minutes after I walk in my father walks in to the service with my mother as well not only did he walk into the service he came in with sneakers and no socks and pajama pants and a tank top and a mess jacket and a Mets hat very strange behavior I said dad what in the world are you wearing why are you here you never come to church and this is what he said at the end of the service he said I don't know if the voice was audible and or inaudible but I heard something very deep in my soul which said follow him after I left the house and he said I don't know if that meant follow Jesus or follow rich but because rich was going to Church to see Jesus I just decided to follow a rich and so he follows me into this small church called Attica this salvus young about ten minutes after he arrived this preacher got up and started preaching from Ezekiel 37 about a valley of dry bones is equal three seven it's a story about the people of God who at one point we're a living army at one point were strong and powerful at one point where the chosen people of God but because of their rebellion because of their sin because of their idolatry because of their injustice they go into exile and now instead of being a powerful army they are just a valley of dry disconnected fragmented powerless bones and God speaks to this project property zqn says Kennedy's bones live Ezekiel says I have no idea and God says some Ezekiel prophesied to these bones and Ezekiel begins to prophesy and calls the wind together from the east and the west and the north and the south and these drive scattered fragmented bones begin to come together God's life is breathe into these bones and they become a living army once again and this preacher got up and said some of you I like these bones your your life is lifeless you are fragmented you are fractured you are broken you are dry you are desolate and God wants to breathe life into you and one by one family members began to hear this word from this preacher and one by one he said God wants to breathe life into you and if he want the breath of God respond and one by one we responded my brother responded and my sister responded and my other sister responded and my other sister responded and I responded and my mother responded and my father responded and uncle responded and not responded in a cousin respond another cousin responded another uncle responded another aren't respondent another cousin responded another cousin responded another cousin responded sounds like a rap here another aunt responded in one night 15 family members in one small Latino Pentecostal church Co a ducati South us young came to Jesus on an August summer nights 15 of us listen God's power was so profound that night if my dog was there my dog would have come as well and I had a Chihuahua named Milo he was demonically possessed and he would have said forgive me my sins as well can I receive this Jesus you speak up I believe that our lives were transformed that night not just because of this preacher but because someone was praying for us for days and months and weeks and years I had grandparents praying for me aunts and uncles praying for me there is a mysterious power to intercession and this is what we see in our text this evening in Acts chapter 12 this mysterious power of intercession intercession very simply is praying for someone else's well-being Richard foster the great Quaker author said it this way the prayer of intercession requires something of us it requires our hearts when we hear and see the news and our hearts want to run turn away from the pain and suffering we see the prayer of intercession calls us to stay present to the pain and to pray for those who are suffering marjory Thompson a great retreat leader and an author says that intercession is a form of hospitality because we welcome others into our inmost sanctuary of compassion in our text this evening we come across a beautiful story that shows the incredible power of intercessory prayer we see it in Peter getting set free the book of Acts is one of my favorite books in the Bible because it gives a great picture of how the church flourished and experienced the power of God the Gospels Matthew Mark Luke and John tell the story of Jesus and how the kingdom of God was available through him the book of Acts tells the story of Jesus and how the kingdom of God was available through him through the witness of the church in the power of the Holy Spirit and one of the things you see and book of axes the centrality of prayer over and over again you can't turn the pages without seeing how central prayer is to the early church in the book of Acts when the Holy Spirit comes under day of Pentecost it comes as a response to people longing for God's presence praying for him to come when the churches birth the Holy Spirit is sent as a result of prayer when the church needed to identify leaders to send them out on mission the church goes to prayer when the believers saw someone in need or someone with some kind of physical ailment that needed supernatural healing they responded with prayer prayer saturates the book of Acts and that's what we see in our story and this chapter Peter who is the leader of the church is arrested and up into this point the church was growing and in the process of growing they were upsetting the religious and the political establishment of the day and so King Herod has him arrested he puts them in a kind of maximum-security prison now Herod had just killed James one of the Apostles and leaders of the church and it seemed as if Peter was next so Peter is in a situation that is beyond anyone's ability to change no person can change Peter's situation no one was skilled enough or strong enough to overtake the prison guards to deliver him no one had connections with Caesar or with Herod to advocate for Peter to get him out of this tough bind that he was in from the looks of it it seems as if there's nothing they could do to change this situation and just like the church in this chapter we continually ourselves find ourselves in situations that seem beyond our ability to change the pain of life can be so overwhelming that it doesn't seem that anything can change let me see the Racial 10 that exists in our country the systemic and structural racism in our society it seems that all of this is beyond our ability to change when we see war and terrorism and genocide in our world it seems as if all of this is beyond our ability to change when we see disease and and death and it seems like all of these realities are beyond our abilities to change when we see friends in bondage to addictions and such it seems all of these realities are beyond our ability to change and yet in moments like these we have to come back to what Jesus said that with human strength this is impossible but with God all things are possible racism and inequality can change because with God all things are possible war and terrorism it can come to an end because with God all things are possible disease and death will come to an end because with God all things are possible this is why intercession is so important because when we pray we are tapping into God's divine power and God's divine reality now there's great mystery in intercession and we must make room for mystery in our prayer we intercede not because it makes rational sense we intercede not because we understand the inner workings of our prayers and how God responds to it we intercede very simply as a form of obedience and desperation before God and this is why in moments of opposition we have to be careful that we don't fall into one or two extremes we often fall into the extreme of resignation or the extreme of relying on human strength resignation essentially says this is how it will always be the church could have simply said well they like Peter up they killed James Peters next this is how it's all going to happen they could have just resigned to cut a kind of resignation and they could have gone into that dream or they could have gone into the extreme of relying on human strength essentially saying we can try to fix all of this without God the first extreme leads to a kind of frustrating apathy the second extreme leads to a kind of functional atheism functional atheism that says I believe in God in my mind but I truly don't live that reality out because prayerlessness is one of the indicators that we truly are living a functional atheism and so whether it's a kind of frustrating apathy or whether it's kind of a functional atheism we are invited to go through a third way in the third way is intercession that uh that with our own strength there's only so much that we can accomplish but as the people of God when we call upon the name of the Lord we tap into a divine power that can change the course of human history this is why the civil rights movement was so powerful because it was more than just marches and protesting what you see what was what undergird is so much of the life and power of the civil rights movement was prayer and intercession we look at the words of Coretta Scott King dr. King's wife she said prayer was the wellspring of strength and inspiration during the civil rights movement throughout the movement we prayed for greater human understanding we pray for the safety of our compatriots and the freedom of in the freedom struggle we prayed for victory in our nonviolent protests for brotherhood and sisterhood among people of all races for reconciliation and the fulfillment of the Beloved Community we are called to a third way of being in the world an intercession essentially says that while we cannot rely on our own strength and we cannot go down the road of resignation but we can call upon the name of the Lord and this is why I love verse five because it says that Peter was therefore kept in prison but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church when Luke writes that the church is praying he's letting us know that when the people of God pray God has a way of answering is interesting because they're praying for Peter and Peter is set free and actually before he set free physically he's kind of set free emotionally he set free spiritually the story says that while Peter is waiting for perhaps his execution he was sleeping and this in itself is a miracle Peter is at peace sleeping although he's probably awaiting is how can he sleep on the night of his execution if you are about to be executed in the morning I promise you your your your Restless you're not sleeping you're worried you're troubled and yet Peter slept peacefully it wasn't just that Peter was a great man of faith when you look at the scriptures you see that Peter has some good moments and he has some bad moments some up moments and some down moments but there's something else that's happening there's a connection that loop the gospel writer and the Acts writer wants to let us know that Peter is sleeping perhaps there's a connection because the church was praying for him I believe often that when I experienced a strange sense of peace or a strange sense of joy I truly believe that someone is praying for me I truly believe that when some kind of surprising sense of joy a surprising sense of peace I truly believe that someone is lifting my name up before the Lord and God is responding and great power to flood me with ease and to flood me with joy and so here Peter is between two guards sleeping and I imagine as the church is praying for him Peter is receiving a sense of joy a sense of courage a sense of fearlessness I imagine Peter in this prison cell calling the words of David to mine where he says in Psalm 27 the Lord is my light and my salvation whom shall I fear the Lord is the strength of my life of whom shall I be afraid when the wicked even my enemies and my foes came upon me to eat up my flesh they stumbled and fell though a host should encamp against me my heart shall not fear the war sure rise against me and this will I be confident one thing have I desired of the Lord and that will I seek after then I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his temple for in time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion in the secret of his Tabernacle he shall hide me he shall set me up upon a rock and now my head shall be lifted above my enemies round about me therefore shall I offer praises in this tabernacle of joy I will sing yes I will sing praises to the Lord as the church is praying Peter is sleeping fearlessly God has set up our relationship with him in such a way that heaven and earth move as a response to prayer and the world knows nothing of this this is foolishness to the world it sounds foolish to believe that God would take this very simple words that we offer to him and change the course of human history through them this is foolishness of the world and yet what is foolish to the world is wisdom to God and what is weak to the world is the power of God and so we are called to call upon the name of the Lord this is why Walter wing the great theologian says that intercessory prayer is spiritual defiance of what is in the way of what God has promised intercession visualizes an alternative future to the one apparently faded by the momentum of created forces or current forces prayer infuses the air of a time yet to be into the suffocating atmosphere of the present history belongs to the intercessors who believe God's future into being and I love that last line history belongs to the intercessors who believe God's future into being and I love that last line because the world doesn't right that way the world says history belongs to the movers and shakers history belongs to those who are in power those who are supremely wealthy those who have influence but God sees things differently God sees that those who are shaping the course of human history are those who call upon the name of the Lord history belongs to the monk in the monastery who's praying seven times a day a man who you will never hear about history belongs to the 80 year old grandmother who is on her rocking chair right now praying for her family members praying for the sake of the world history belongs to the person who will get up a little early and go to sleep a little bit later to call upon the name of the Lord and hold the realities of the world before the Living God history belongs to the intercessors who believe the future into being and we are invited in this passage to change the world through our intercession and when we take it seriously God moves in power and here's the beautiful thing about our intercession and we see it in this story is that dog takes our very weak faith our mustard seed faith and responds in power and here's how I know it seems when you look at the story that when the people of God the church were praying that they really didn't expect God to answer and it's actually a very funny passage the church is in prayer for Peter and while they're praying God sends an angel to visit Peter and the angel sets Peter free and somehow the guards are asleep and Peter breaks out of prison this is the easiest prison break in recorded history and I love it because with human beings this would be impossible but God makes the impossible look easy and so Peter runs out of the prisons who rejoined the church and he finally arrives and surely he's hungry surely he's thirsty surely he's tired and he finds the apartment building that they're meeting at he takes the elevator to the 6th floor he knocks on the door and a woman named Rhoda comes to the door now now you imagine they're afraid of their lives and Rhoda this this servant comes and she goes to the peephole who is it Peter and she got imagine Peter who and she looks he goes that looks like Peter and she i imagine he steps back for a second this can't be Peter and they're in the back the rest of the she looks again that's Kent who Peter who it's Peter you're praying for me I'm free and and it's actually very funny because instead of opening the door for him to let him in she leaves him there and goes back to the church and said guys Peters Pete Peter is at the door like open the door for the guy Peter is at the door and they say wrote a dumb play with our motions Peters about to die lord please deliver him set him free and the noisiest must be his ghost I mean I got some bad theology this miss must be his ghost and I find it ironic that it was easier for Peter to get out of prison than it was for him to get into the church that's a sermon in event itself if I had time I'd preach about that I was easy to get at a prison or to get into the church and so they open the door and it says they're astonished I mean they were just praying for this to happen and they are so astonished and this is I'm so encouraged by this because God often takes our weak faith our stumbling faith are doubting faith are inconsistent faith are intermittent faith and yet he moves and great power God could do a lot with a little bit and sometimes all it takes is us offering to God whatever we have and trusting God to move in power and so we are called to call upon the name of the Lord now when we pray and intercede there are a number of things that are happening and it's essential intercession is critical for a few reasons I just want to outline three of them intercession is important because it moves us beyond ourselves it moves us the circle of concern gets expanded beyond ourselves and we live in an I generation that we often focus on just our own concerns or the concerns of our little tribe and yet intercession calls us to expand the circle of our concern to hold the world before the Living God and enter session because intercession is an act of love intercession moves us beyond ourselves when we pray and interceding interceding calls us to a life of trust trusting that although we can't see it all those circumstances might not be changing although you've been praying for a while for something to change we're called to a life of trust that God is good and God is powerful and God wants to respond with loving kindness and with mercy and with justice when we pray in his name and ultimately intercession draws us into the mystery of Christ's intercession for us that Jesus Christ right at this moment is praying for us Henry now and one of my favorite authors says it this way and a letter he was writing to a friend he says one of the greatest vocations we as Christians have is to pray for others my sense is that you will be closer to the Lord Jesus the more you pray for others because Jesus came for others and praying for others is entering more deeply into the mystery of His divine intercession and the phrase is the the mystery of His divine intercession and that's what we need to see as I start bringing this message to a close this to talk about intercession is not just to focus on our intercession but to be reminded that every single day Jesus is interceding for us I've been wrestling with this thought for months that God and the person of Jesus intercedes for us and Hebrews 7 it says therefore he is able to save forever those who draw near to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for them right now Jesus is praying for you right now Jesus you are on the mine of God God is thinking about you God is working on your behalf God is holding all things together and so when we pray when we intercede we are confessing God is ultimately the one who holds all of reality together and this is what we confess when we pray one of the verses that has informed my life with God and prayer and intercession and just being with God and pastoring and all that comes out of Colossians 1:18 which says speaking of Jesus he is before all things and in him all things hold together and when I think about that verse that Jesus holds everything together as the baseline is the foundation for our intercession I think about a series of images right here a few blocks away from us in Manhattan down by Rockefeller Center just a few blocks away there's a statue of of Atlas and there's a picture of Atlas holding the world on his shoulders and this is a picture of many of you today holding the world under the weights of on the burden of trying to hold everything on your shoulders an Atlas is holding the weight of the world on his shoulders but what's fascinating about this statue right by Rockefeller Center just a few blocks away is this this wonderful juxtaposition where Atlas is facing the Catholic Church he's facing the church go to the next slide there for me and it's a powerful juxtaposition what's even more powerful and even more of a delicious juxtaposition is within one of the rooms of st. Patrick's Cathedral there's another statute while Atlas is holding the world on his shoulders in a little room and st. Patrick's Cathedral is there's another statue of kindergarten Jesus effortlessly holding the world in his hands five-year-old Jesus chicken nugget eaten Jesus juice box sipping Jesus Sesame Street watching Jesus effortlessly holding the world in his hands intercession is the movement of carrying everything on ourselves and transitioning it into the mighty hands of God who holds the world together he is before all things and in him all things hold together some of you in this story you're Peter somebody right now you're in bondage yoram bondage to some kind of addiction some kind of pattern some kind of family dysfunction you're in bondage to shame and to guilt you're in bondage in some kind of way and we need and you need the prayers of the people of God to come alongside you to beseech God on your behalf to call on God on your behalf so that you would be set free some of you are Peter in this room and the response is to open yourself up to receive the prayers of the people of God the intercession of the People of God and some of you know of a Peter know of someone and your school someone in your workplace someone in your neighborhood and we are invited to pray with Jesus as he is interceding on our behalf to pray that Peters in the world will be set free from their bondage set free from their prison set free from the power of the Evil One and God has it entrusted to us the Ministry of intercession and as we're faithful to calling upon the name of the Lord he will respond in power let's pray together Lord Jesus what a holy calling you've given us to join you in intercession to pray on behalf of the world to believe that you can break down strongholds that you can set people free Lord I pray he would deepen in us individually and in us as a local body of believers and that you would deepen the church in New York City to call upon your name to seek you to believe that as we lift our prayers to you that the course of human history can be altered because history belongs to the intercessors transform us awaken us speak to us form us we pray all these things in Jesus name and everyone said amen

Channel: Church of the City New York

Views: 738

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: God, Jesus, Christianity, Church, Church of the City New York, Jon Tyson, Rich Villodas, Teach Us To Pray

Id: -vCHURzAcmY

Length: 41min 35sec (2495 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 20 2018