Welcome to Delight in Grace. The Teaching Ministry of Rich Powell. Pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The God of the Bible. is a dangerous beauty.
a consuming fire eliciting awe, and wander. Our God is also ever good. and ever faithful. Deuteronomy 9 has a lot to teach us about the character of God. and a lot to teach us about ourselves.
May our understanding of Him spur us to follow hard after our God. Let's listen to this message titled, A consuming fire is the Lord your God. This is part five of a sermon first preached on june twenty third, twenty twenty four, at Grace Bible Church in Winston, Salem. To hear the entire message and others in this series, you can visit www.delightingrace.com. We are his, we follow him.
And we're seated with him in the heavenlies.
So let's intercede for each other. And he says, Look at the end. Look at the end with me. Verse 27: Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Do not regard the stubbornness of this people, or their wickedness, or their sin, lest the land from which you brought us say, Because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land that He promised them, and because He hated them, He has brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness.
For they are your people and your heritage, whom you brought out of your great with your great power and by your outstretched arm. It was God's reputation that he cared about. Do you realize how important it was that Solomon was interceding for his people at this time? Do you realize how important it is? Each one of you, that God's people intercede for you.
Day after day after day. Do you realize how important that is to your walk with God? Philippians chapter 1, verse 4, just as an example, Philippians chapter 1, verse 4, he says, always, Paul says, he writes to the church, always in every prayer of mine for you all, making my prayer with joy. He's constantly praying for the people. And here's why else that's important.
James chapter 5, verse 16. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. How do we pray for each other? When you get together in care group, and you know what, you should be praying in care group.
A huge chunk of time in your prayer group should be devoted to prayer. And we should pray for each other. And when you say, let's, what do we need to pray about? Here's what I'm challenging you to do. Don't think about the hospital list.
We need to pray for those in the hospital, don't get me wrong. But we need to be praying about what God wants to do in our lives and in the lives of the people that we love and care about. Because praying for each other is a huge part. of God's purifying process. in our lives.
Because you might be going through a struggle. When I was down in Haiti, For an extended stay? It was incredibly meaningful to know that God's people were interceding for me. But you know what? You weren't just praying that God would rescue me.
And you were, and I appreciate it. Thank you very much. But you know what else you were praying for? And I know this. There was a spiritual battle going on in here.
And your intercession. Helped me. It moved God's spirit. To help me. We should be doing that for each other every day.
Because there is spiritual warfare going on day after day after day after day. And our intercession for each other is so key. Do we realize that my earnest prayer before God moves the arm of omnipotence? To take action in a loved one's life. to protect them.
To purify them. to change their thoughts. To switch their focus from the obstacle that's in front of them to the glorious one. who loves them and delivers them. It's exactly what Moses did right here.
And do you see the outcome? It almost makes it look like God is human and changes his mind, doesn't it? But I think this was written for us to learn from it. That we, as we pray for each other, it's a really powerful thing. It becomes a pillar.
A pillar. of our walk with God. His holiness, His promise. His grace And the intercession of God's people for each other, because that's what Jesus is doing for us, right? He's interceding for us.
So it only makes sense that we would intercede for each other. Because we are His, we follow Him. And we're seated with him in the heavenlies.
So let's intercede for each other. How should you pray for each other? I really, really, really would like you to learn this.
So write this down in your notes. How to pray for each other. Write these down and learn them, and learn to pray for each other.
Somebody actually wrote this to me. When I was in Haiti. And I'm reading it at 4 o'clock in the morning. You don't know how powerful that is. But here are the texts.
These are prayers. Ephesians 1, verses 16 to 20. Ephesians 3 verses 14 to 19. Colossians 1. Verses 9 through 11.
Pray this for each other. Pray these things for each other. Why? Because this is what God wants to do, this is what brings Him glory. It's not about us just having a longer and more comfortable life.
This is what God wants to do and bring Himself glory as He works in us and through us. in our walk with God. Uphold by the intercession of God's people. In closing today, Hebrews 12. We started the whole worship service today with this: Hebrews 12, verses 28 and 29.
Read this together with me. Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. And thus let us offer to God acceptable worship. with reverence and awe. For our God is a consuming fire.
And think about that. What is acceptable worship? It's not complaining, it's not testing. It's not craving. It's not self-righteousness.
It's delighting in His grace. and interceding for one another. This is a good way to acknowledge the holiness of our God, who is Himself a consuming fire. Bobby's going to come now and conclude the sermon today. Thank you, Rich.
This has been very good. Um In this in this very chapter, the writer here reflects on the Israel's story. And ours is reflecting on the same passage that we've been in this morning. We ourselves are people that have come to a better kingdom than they came to. one that transcends space and time, nation, And people, we've come to a better covenant than the one Moses brought to his people.
And as Rich shared, we have a better intercessor, this person of Christ, interceding for us, one who takes our place and bears that wrath from God. We say this because the author in this very section says something we hope for you to hear this morning. When these great truths are being brought to us, The author says see to it. that you do not refuse him who is speaking. When God speaks, We are called to respond.
This comes to this section right here. This comes to the point of our existence as a gathered congregation, the acceptable worship of God. And so, as this is characterized by gratitude, reverence. And awe Because our God is a consuming fire. Do you remember the words he shared that this God is in the business of consuming what corrupts in us?
And so we want to give you an opportunity as God's people to respond. When God speaks, that hope that instinct is cultivated within us, that we respond in worship, in song, in prayer together. What I want to do is just give you an opportunity to Respond in prayer now. I'll begin us here, and we can word your short expressions aloud of confession. of gratitude.
of reverence, And if you're not comfortable praying aloud, that is absolutely okay. You can just pray silently right where you are. And after a time, I'm going to close this, okay? Lord, may the words Of our hearts, the meditations of our mouths be acceptable. in your sight.
Father, we thank you for the incredible privilege worshiping him. Oh, thank you for your son, his Always interceding on our behalf. And for the privilege that it is to Join him in that intersection. Our Father, it is our privilege to hear you. You speak.
We thank you that you have taken the initiative that you have chosen to speak to us. to grant to us these precious promises The grace of remembering you, of being supported by the people that you have put us together with. We lift our praises to you for your great kindness to us, most especially. for the person of Jesus. For the one who walks with us through the fire That we can be and walk through your holiness and be with you.
To have his righteousness in us. And would you grant that that intercession? Would encourage us, that we would know He is with us, that we would know that He is active in our family and shepherding us. Grant to us just a fresh sense of the wonder of knowing you. of seeing your holiness together.
We pray in Christ's name. Amen. Thanks for joining us here at Delight in Grace. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission.
Is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good. and your deepest satisfaction in Him. the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on weekdays at 10 a.m.
