How to Have Friendship with God | Intercessory Prayer

Today's episode of A New Beginning is brought to you by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God.

Learn more at harvest.org. And while you're there, browse our library of free e-books designed to help you grow in your faith. Moses was a true intercessor, and he would not give up. Prayer is the most powerful way to show our love for someone.

And today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie shows us Moses was a powerful example. God is still looking for people to stand in the gap and pray. Are you willing to pray for other people to come to the Lord? Are you willing to pray with persistence?

Be an intercessor. Stand in the gap. Mature believers talk to others about God, and they also talk to God about others. Do you regularly pray for others? Pray for their needs? Pray they might come to the Lord or come closer to the Lord? Our mission statement here at A New Beginning is knowing Him and making Him known. And intercessory prayer is a vital instrument in that pursuit.

So today, Pastor Greg Laurie continues his series on the life of Moses, uncovering the leader's faithful ministry of intercessory prayer. We all have friends in life, hopefully. Some people have a lot of friends, some have just a few. Then you have old friends, people you have known for a long time. Then you have new friends, people you are just getting to know. And then you have marriage. And then when you get married, you spend a lot of time with your friend, my wife Kathy. She is my best friend.

So we understand each other. I sometimes jokingly say between the two of us we have one complete brain. And by that I mean I will forget something. And I will say, wait, what was that guy's name? It was, and she will remember. And she will forget something.

Where were we on that day? Oh, I will remember that. And so together we get it all figured out. But even the way that a man and a woman communicate, there is a little mystery to it. Sometimes men don't understand women.

Well, let me restate that. Most of the time men don't understand women. But there are times that women don't understand men either.

Let me illustrate. When a man says to a woman it is a guy thing, what that really means is there is no rational thought pattern connected to this and no chance of you ever figuring it out. When a man says to a woman, can I help with dinner? What he really means is I am hungry and I want to eat right now. When a man says to a woman, well it would take too long to explain. He really is saying, I have no idea how it works. When a man says to a woman, take a break honey. You are working too hard. He is really saying, turn off the vacuum cleaner.

I can't hear the game I am watching on TV. When a man says to a woman, well you know how bad my memory is. What he is really saying is, despite the fact that I know all the lyrics to the theme song of the Beverly Hillbillies, sorry I forgot what day your birthday actually is on. When a man says, I can't find it. He is really saying, if it didn't fall into my outstretched hand, I am completely clueless. When a man says to a woman, you look terrific. He really means, stop changing your outfit and let's go. Finally, when a man says, we are not lost.

I know exactly where we are. What he is really saying is, no one will ever see us alive again. Marriage, friendship. I want to talk to you about a man that knew God in a personal way. A man who had a friendship with God. And of course that man's name is Moses.

So let's sort of pick up where we last left off in this series. So Moses is up on Mount Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments. Now he doesn't know how bad things are back at the camp where Aaron was left in charge. He did not yet know that the people were dancing around a golden calf and calling it their God. And so while he is there on Mount Sinai the Lord says to Moses in Exodus 32 verse 9, I am going to pour my wrath out against these people and consume them and make of you a great nation. Moses didn't know how bad it was. And now as he descends from the mountain he sees the sight of full tilt idolatry and immorality and Aaron offers up the lamest excuse of all time to justify this horrible behavior. And Moses is so angry he takes these two commandments written by the finger of God and throws them on the ground and they smash into pieces. Now that was not a good idea. The Lord actually said you are going to have to go carve a new set now. And that is exactly what he had to do.

But here is what was happening. The Lord was developing Moses. He was testing Moses and he was wanting to see if Moses would learn how to be an intercessor. Maybe God is testing you right now.

Why do Christians go through times of hardship? Why do we have to experience trials? I remember when I was a brand new believer and fellow Christians warned me, now Greg you are going to go through trials. I am like I am going to go on trial?

No. You are going to have trials. What do you mean trials? You will know.

And when the first trial hit I knew. Why does God allow trials and tribulation and hardship in the life of the believer? James chapter 1 says this, dear brothers and sisters when troubles of any kind come your way consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow. For when your endurance is fully developed you will be perfect and complete needing nothing. Trials are like God's gem. You break muscle down to build it up.

So you go to a gem. Maybe at the first of the year you are out of shape. Well you are in a shape. You are just in the shape of a pear.

Which is not a good shape. Your friends even call you he is the Lord's pear. No. You don't want that. So you go to the gem.

You sign up. And you work out really hard. And the next day you can't even lift your hand.

You are so tired. Well you need to pace yourself. And in time you will break that muscle down.

You will build it up and you will be stronger as a result. God let you go through these trials to strengthen you. And God was sort of whipping Moses into shape. And God wanted to see if Moses had really changed. Don't forget Moses was that hot headed man that took matters into his own hands and instead of waiting on the Lord's timing he killed an Egyptian and then had to go into exile for 40 very long years until he was recommissioned at the burning bush by the Lord.

But now Moses is going to learn how to deal with people that oppose him. Are you dealing with people like that right now that are critical of you. That are making life hard for you. People that have hit you unfairly.

What is your natural reaction? Hit back. And hit back harder. Well that is not what we are taught to do in the Bible. Jesus says love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you.

And when you do that you are acting like true children of your father in heaven. So the Israelites were not very appreciative of Moses at this phase of the story. They were critical of his leadership.

And he was becoming very frustrated. Would he be an intercessor. Would he stand in the gap for them. Would he pray for them. By the way God is still looking for people to stand in the gap and pray. The Bible says the Lord was looking for someone to stand in the gap but he could find none. Are you willing to pray for other people to come to the Lord.

Are you willing to pray with persistence for the Lord to answer that prayer you are bringing before him. And John chapter 4 is a story of a desperate dad whose son was very sick. In fact he was at death's door.

This father was a part of a royal family. And he came and humbled himself before Jesus which is pretty amazing. He is a man of royalty and he gets down and humbles himself before Christ and he begs Jesus to touch his dear son. And the response of the Lord is quite unusual because he says unless you people see signs and wonders you will not believe. Well like what kind of thing is that to say to a desperate dad that just wants his son to be healed.

But the fact is Jesus was not really addressing the father. He was addressing the fickle crowd that just came to be entertained. He just came to see a sign. A miracle.

Something to dazzle them. Meanwhile this persistent dad was standing there waiting and would not give up. And then he says Lord come to my house before my son dies. Jesus says oh your son he's healed.

So why did this happen? Why did Jesus not just respond to this guy immediately? Because he wanted to draw him out and he wanted to teach the man that sometimes you need to keep asking, you need to keep seeking, and you need to keep knocking on the door. And sometimes because we will not be persistent in our prayer we don't see them answered in the affirmative.

Sometimes what looks like a barrier may actually be a bridge. So don't give up. So coming back to Moses. Had Moses learned anything? Would he pray for these fickle people? And let me ask you is there someone you need to be praying for right now? Do you have a child that's rebelling against God and they're just going from bad to worse? Or do you know someone that needs to hear the gospel but they're not responsive when you try to engage them in a conversation? Don't give up. Keep praying for them because we know when you pray for people to believe in Jesus you're praying according to the will of God. You say how do you know that Greg?

Because the Bible says God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. Here's another illustration. Abraham and Isaac.

Remember? The Lord said to Abraham, take your son. Your only son whom you love and offer him as a sacrifice to me. So Abraham took his boy up that mountain in obedience to God. And Isaac was kind of wondering what was going on. And by the way sometimes in religious art you see this shown in a way where Abraham is an adult obviously. But Isaac is just like a little boy. No. Isaac was a young man at this point. Probably full grown. And so when he realized what was about to happen that his father was going to potentially offer him as a sacrifice he could have said you know what dad?

You're a very old dude. Why don't we sacrifice you and I'll leave okay? But you know amazingly not only did Abraham obey God but Isaac went along with it as well. And as they got up to the mountain Isaac asked his father the question where's the sacrifice? And Abraham prophetically says God will provide himself a sacrifice. And he pulled out the knife and was ready to plunge it on his son. And suddenly the Lord stopped him and said do him no harm.

Listen. It was never God's intention for Abraham to take the life of his son. But what it was was a test of Abraham's faith.

And it was a picture for us of what happened when Jesus went to the cross. The father sent the son to die but the son willingly went. And as Jesus said no one takes my life I lay it down of my own accord.

But my point is simply this. Sometimes the Lord will allow tests in our life to see if we will press on and not give up. Pastor Greg Lorry will have the second half of his message in just a moment.

Whenever you send us an email, letter, or post a comment on social media we read every word. Pastor Greg I loved the movie Jesus Revolution. I'm also thankful that you helped lead my mom to Jesus just two weeks before she suddenly died. Through it all God is good. Has Pastor Greg heard from you?

If not why not drop him an email and tell your story. Send it to Greg at harvest dot org. Again that's Greg at harvest dot o-r-g. We're studying the life of Moses today in Pastor Greg's series called Wood, Fire, Stone. Let's continue now with our focus on prayer. Now listen to this amazing statement of Moses in Exodus 32 verse 31. Moses returned to the Lord and said these people have committed a terrible sin.

They've made gods of gold for themselves. Now please forgive their sin and if not then blot me out of the record you are keeping. So Moses has seen the sin of the people and he goes to the Lord and he says Lord I know it's bad. It's horrible what they've done and I'm asking you to forgive them of their sin. And in the original Hebrew there's an implied pause. So it goes something along these lines.

Lord I know they've committed a horrible sin and I ask you to forgive them. Pause. Pause. Pause. But if not then blot my name out of your book.

Get it? Moses is pondering this. He's thinking about it and he's saying Lord if it would make a difference if it would mean that they would be forgiven take my name out of your book. Effectively the apostle Paul said the same thing when he wrote in Romans 9 3. He said my people my Jewish brothers and sisters I would be willing to be forever cursed that is cut up from Christ if you would save them. So basically Paul and Moses are saying to the Lord hey if this is what it takes we'll go to hell so these people can go to heaven. That's an intercessor for you.

That's someone standing in the gap. Thankfully we don't have to give up our hope of eternal life so someone else can have it. That has already been purchased for us by Jesus Christ on the cross but Moses was a true intercessor and he would not give up. I think one of the reasons we don't intercede for others one of the reasons we don't pray for others is because if we're brutally honest and no one likes to admit it but we would have to say we just don't care.

You're not going to share if you don't care. And I think that comes back to Jonah. I mentioned him last time how Jonah did not want to go preach the gospel to the Ninevites because frankly he did not want them to repent.

He wanted God to judge them and eradicate them from the earth because they were a cruel people and Israel had suffered under their hand so he didn't want to go off for mercy to them and sometimes we'll look at somebody that's living a wicked life or doing horrible things and we don't want to pray for them. We don't want to pray that God touches our heart or changes them or forgives our sin but we should and if we don't care we'll never share. And here's what I'm saying I hope that you would have a heart that cares for people that don't know Jesus yet. C. H. Spurgeon regarded by most preachers as the greatest of all preachers apart from the apostles. In fact he was called the prince of preachers once made this statement quote, the Holy Spirit will move them by first moving you. And Spurgeon was talking about non-believers. If you can rest without their being saved they will rest too. But if you're filled with an agony for them right Spurgeon and if you start up at once and begin to cry oh God give me converts or I will die then Spurgeon says you will have converts. Care. Be an intercessor. Stand in the gap.

All around you are people that need to hear about Jesus Christ and all you need to do is take a little step of faith and start an evangelistic conversation. Back to our story. God tells Moses he won't destroy the people.

But then he adds this. But I'm not going with them either. I'll send an angel. Well Moses is not down with that idea at all. He goes and tells the Israelites good news and bad news. God is not going to wipe you off the face of the earth and you can go but he's not going with you.

You're on your own. He'll send an angel though. The people are like no we we want the Lord to go with us and so they take off all their rings and their necklaces and everything else and and they offer it to the Lord and they say we're sorry for our sin. We don't want to go on without God. And so now Moses goes to the Lord with this amazing statement in Exodus 33. Exodus 33 verse 15. Moses said to the Lord if you don't personally go with us don't make us leave this place how will anyone now look favorably on me and your people if you don't go with us for your presence among us set your people and me apart from all other people on earth.

Man he's so candid. Effectively saying Lord bad PR move. Okay as you're a consultant I recommend you go with us. It isn't going to reflect well on you or me or your people. What sets us apart is you walk with us and we walk with you. But you know that's friendship.

Friends can ask for things from friends. And amazingly the Lord approves and gives Moses what he asks for. And this gives us an insight into how to have your prayers answered in the affirmative.

Listen to this. The objective of prayer is not to get God to do what I want him to do. The purpose of prayer is not getting Greg's will in heaven. It's getting God's will on earth in Greg's life. Think of it as you being on a little boat and there's a dock and you throw your rope and you pull yourself to the dock.

Now are you pulling the dock to you or are you pulling your boat to the dock. Okay that's prayer. God is like the dock.

Get aligned with him. The closer you get to his will the more your prayers will be answered in the affirmative. Jesus said if you abide in me and my words abide in you you shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you.

Or from the Greek it would be Jesus speaking if you maintain a living communion with me and my word is at home in you. Listen you can ask at once for yourself whatever your heart desires and it's yours. Now we gravitate toward the latter part of the verse.

Ask whatever my heart desires. But listen if I'm maintaining a living communion with him and his word is at home in my heart and I'm reading the Bible I'm going to start praying for what God wants. That's what's happening to Moses. He's getting his will aligned with the will of God. And 1 John 5 15 says this is the confidence we have when we approach God. If we ask anything according to his will he will hear us. So now Moses is getting it. He's aligning with God.

We're gleaning some great lessons on prayer today from our study of the life of Moses with Pastor Greg Laurie here on A New Beginning and there's more to come as this teaching continues. Well Pastor Greg we're excited to announce your new film called Fame. We'll have more details about that in just a moment but let me ask you when you were growing up did you ever want to be famous?

Well the answer to that question is probably found in a drawing that I did when I was probably around 10 years old. It was a drawing of an amusement park called Laurie Land and in the little drawing I did there's a convertible and me I'm sitting in the convertible and people are chasing me. So I guess but it was you know it's my version of Disneyland you know because I enjoyed Disneyland and going there as a little boy but I think what I was searching for really was not fame but significance. You want to be known you want to be noticed you want to matter and I think to a large degree because of the way I was raised I felt I was experiencing the opposite of that.

Yeah. So I know I've met a lot of famous people now talk with them seeing what their life is like. I've studied this subject deeply and and I've written a book about it and we have a movie about it and here's the premise of the movie. Fame is not the answer. You know Jim Carrey who's been very successful in film made this statement and I quote I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see it's not the answer end quote. And so we've produced a film where we interview two very famous people among others starting with Alice Cooper. I think it comes as a surprise to people to learn that Alice Cooper is a Christian and not someone who recently became a Christian but someone who has actually been a follower of Jesus for 25 years or more and he's one of the nicest guys I've ever met one of the most down-to-earth people I've ever met and when he's out and about he's accessible to people he's friendly but he's a living legend. This is a guy that has experienced fame at one point in his career his band Alice Cooper was the most popular band in the world but he knew fame was not the answer so he gets some really interesting insights into the emptiness of all of this.

In fact let's just play a little excerpt from the film so people can get an insight into what Alice Cooper thinks. I have no idea why you let me live except for this fact that I can I can talk about it now and I can give him all the credit. I became an alcoholic and a drug addict for a good reason. I didn't know it was a good reason but I didn't know God was going to use it. If the Lord is knocking at your door answer it.

It's the best thing that you could ever do. So in this new movie called Fain we have an extended interview with Alice Cooper. We hear this amazing story how God literally saved him saved his marriage and saved his life and we also talked to baseball great Daryl Strawberry another living legend but in the sports world. You're going to see and hear some amazing things in this new film that has never been revealed to the public before real insights into these fascinating characters and then other things that I'll be sharing about the emptiness of fame. So here's the thing this is a great movie to show to a non-believer because a poll was done not long ago among young people and they were asked what do you want more than anything else in life and the answer was I want to be rich and famous. Because today Dave you can be insta-famous.

You can be a so-called influencer on social media and it becomes all about getting more followers you know on your media platforms and and we've even heard recent stories of these influencers taking their own lives as well. Fame is empty. Fame is not the answer. Christ is the answer but we walk through this as we look at this as we look at the lives of these people who've been there done that bought the t-shirt and in some cases they've been the t-shirt and we explore the emptiness of fame and how the answer is ultimately in Jesus. Great film to watch with a non-believer have a watch party invite people over to your home we're going to put it exclusively on our new harvest media platform that we're very excited about and we also have a companion book by the same title Fame that I wrote with my friend Marshall Terrell.

We wrote many books together including Steve McQueen, The Salvation of an American Icon, Johnny Cash, The Redemption of an American Icon and also Billy Graham, The Man I Knew. Now we have Fame to add to the collection so we'll send you this book for your gift of any size but encourage you to be a part of the premiere of this new film from Harvest Ministries, Fame. Yeah that's right these are two important tools now we'll send you the book called Fame to thank you for partnering with us to keep bringing the gospel in innovative ways such as this. Your investment makes such a difference in how many lives we can reach with the hope of Christ and so when you send your donation today please ask for the new book called Fame but also mark your calendar for the premiere of Fame the movie. It's coming October 20th through 22nd to our new harvest media platform at harvest.org and also to streaming platforms such as Roku, Apple TV, Samsung, Amazon Fire and Google Play.

You can watch it for free again it debuts October 20th through 22nd. You can get the details at harvest.org and at that website you can also you can also request the new book Fame for your gift of any size that's harvest.org or write a new beginning box 4000 Riverside California 92514 or call us at 1-800-821-3300 that's a 24 7 phone number 1-800-821-3300. Well next time as Pastor Greg continues his study series on the life of Moses called Wood, Fire, Stone we'll glean some practical lessons on prayer intercessory prayer. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher Greg Laurie. Hey everybody thanks for listening to this podcast to learn more about Harvest Ministries follow this show and consider supporting it just go to harvest.org and to find out how to know God personally go to harvest.org and click on know God.