Valley After Valley and No One Caring

Valley After Valley and No One Caring

by Jim Brunner

Transcribed from the original recording; may contain errors.

Something you can pray about for me. I picked up the guitar and played it for years. But there’s something about playing a guitar, at least last time I tried it, gave me a chest pain, just holding it, trying to strum it. And I would love to get back and use it, because I so appreciate these guitars. Haven’t they been doing a good job? Hallelujah.

Hallelujah. It’s… We need it. We need to unite our hearts and unite our spirits in worship of the Lord. We can have our fun songs and humor. Somebody… Who was it that suggested I ought to minister on laughter? Oh, yes, yes, yes. The filers. Said I ought to minister on laughter because it’s such good. A merry heart does good like a medicine. I remember…

There was one time I laughed. I was in seminary. And we had a student at Perkins School of Theology who had transferred in. And we had a chapel service early in the morning before we went to class, kind of like we have meditations here. And one student would read from the Gospel, and one student would read from the Epistle, and one student would read from the Old Testament. And then we had a prayer together, and we’d go to class.

And this student was in the second year, and he wanted to make a good impression upon everybody, and he was asked to read from Matthew’s Gospel, where I think it was the Revised Standard Version, where it says that John baptized Jesus in the Jordan. And we were all sleepy. It was early in the morning, you know, just kind of half awake, going through it so we could get on with the class. And so help me, when he read it, he said, “Jordan baptized Jesus in the John.”

Hello, baby. God bless you. Where’s Elmer? You can imagine what happened to the place. Everybody’s half asleep, you know, and everybody just… For weeks we said, “Where did Jordan baptized?” But it’s good to laugh at ourselves. It’s good to laugh at ourselves.

Joel has been very, very prompt and very good at disciplining us, Barbara and I, and saying, “Now, what’s your title? What’s your title?” And I said, “Well, what would the proper title be?” But I know, Joel, what the title to this one is. It’s intercession. Or intercessory prayer.

In looking in the dictionary, I was given this at a CFO camp not too many weeks ago on the meaning of intercession. And I want to read it to you. To fall into a hole with someone else. That’s intercession.

To meet another person in a common experience. It’s intercession. To share another’s emotions and frustrations firsthand. Amen. Supplication. Or to rescue someone from danger. A woodpecker is saying amen. Amen. He’s just saying amen. Amen. He’s just saying amen.

I suppose that if the Lord would list for us the most important ministries that we could give ourselves to, if they were listed in the order of their importance, as far as the kingdom of heaven is concerned, from God’s standpoint, I am quite sure that the top of the list, the most important ministry that we can give ourselves to, and I do believe there are some who are really called to it, is that of intercession.

It’s not a public ministry. It’s not a ministry that the other people see. It’s a ministry in the closet. And consequently, it’s a very effective ministry, because when you minister with the public, there’s all kinds of snares. But when it’s just you and the Lord, there’s no snare.

It’s just you and Jesus sharing together. Ezekiel 22 and verse 30 says that one who intercedes is one who makes up the hedge or fills the gap between the need of the individual and the grace of God that comes to us from the cross of Christ to meet that need. And somehow you identify with both.

I would suggest to you that there are two very natural reactions to a situation that you’re praying for or a need that you’re praying for. Both are very natural and we’re all prone to have them, but they’re both very human and they’re not divine.

And the first one, of course, is obvious, and that is one of judgment. When you see a situation and you feel it’s wrong and you pray and you… We have a tendency to… “So, Lord, You know, after what they’ve done, they’ve got it coming.”

But you know that’s not right. But neither is it right to so identify with the need that all you can offer is sympathy. Look, Jesus has got more to offer than a shoulder to cry on. Sometimes all we can do is hug one another and be with them in the affliction.

We mentioned earlier that there is a third way to look at life. It’s not just comic and it’s not just tragic, but we can look at it redemptively through the cross, from the eyes of the cross, and we can change the situation by our prayers, by our living.

And so, let me suggest that you consider your attitude when you pray for another. Because if you are judging, you’re not of the Spirit of Christ. He said, “I came not to judge.” We judge ourselves by the way we act or react to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Out of our own mouth comes our own judgment. He does not do it. Nor do we over-sympathize. There’s not an ounce of redemption in sympathy. What’s the reaction to sympathy? You see the little kids running around and they bump a knee and skin it up. It’s just basically the little boys. And they’re playing together and they’ll get right up and keep right on playing. But let mama see it, and oh my, they can cry.

The natural reaction to sympathy is self-pity, and God won’t honor that. You know that. So we don’t over-identify with the need. We don’t just over-identify with God’s righteousness and judge. We somehow are able to take care of both and bring them together and let the grace of God meet the need and find the answer, because we have prayed.

Because we make the connection. We become the… And Barb, I think it was Zakich. Rhea Zakich who said we can’t do it. Yes, I think it was. But it’s still a good idea that we be the connection between the two. I believe that’s true intercession.

I believe we can look at a situation, we can look at the need through the eyes of the cross, and I like to use the word compassion, because I think of it as love in action. I remember years ago, 20 years ago in Tucson, the county jail was run down and was in terrible shape, and it was overcrowded, and you go in and visit and it was terrible.

And a few people just began to pray. And in two years a bond vote passed and a new prison was built, and we formed a little non-profit corporation that’s publicly supported, and we provided chaplains and volunteers, and today Pima County jail is recognized as an exemplary jail, and the sheriff will very openly say that the reason for it is the volunteers and those who come and on their own expense come and minister and share with the prisoners, not just with them but with their families. And just… because of a lot of prayer… have felt a call. I…

When you make true intercession, you offer yourself. That’s what Jesus did on the cross. He was the real intercessor.

Where He said, “Lord, if I can be used to meet the need, here I am.” We’re not telling God what to do. We simply give ourselves to Him to be used by Him. And worship and praise is important. But if you really get into worship and praise, if you really get a hold of God, let me tell you something. God’s going to begin to share some of His concerns with you. If you start spending time with God and you start listening, He’s going to share Himself with you.

I remember when we moved down to Nogales. We hadn’t been there two weeks. We were trying a new experiment of… We were trying to follow the book of Acts as best we knew how, and there were seven families of us that were sharing our lives together. And I went across the border, and I saw valley after valley, valley after valley, where there’s no evidence of anybody caring, really.

And it got to me. And I began to pray. It wasn’t two weeks until I felt a tap on my shoulder, and I didn’t speak any Spanish. But I was… tap on the shoulder, and the Lord said, “You.” I said, “Yeah.” “You, go.”

It’s an amazing thing when, if you really worship, intercession and worship are twins. I don’t believe you can really get into one without the other. A lot of us pray, and really all in the world we’re doing is telling God what we think He ought to do. Because we’ve never, we’ve not spent time to listen to what He would do.

I think He’s got a better view than we do. I think He’s got all the facts in place. And I believe He does know what He’s doing. I somehow believe that if I was the Lord and could see everything that He sees, beginning from the end, and knew where He started with and where He was going with everything, I’m not sure I would change a thing. I trust Him. I live my life believing I can hear from Him.

And I live my life believing that He expects me to be obedient. It’s a good place to say amen, church. In Isaiah 59 the prophet is prophesying about judgment coming on the nations. You know, Jesus talked about the tree that was planted, the fig tree that was planted, and year after year it’s watered and dunged and cared for, and there’s no fruit. And there comes a time when the owner says, “Chop it down.” Well, apparently the prophet was talking about that time in terms of nations and cultures.

Let me just say, it comes to my mind right now, and I want to share this, with all my heart I try not to be judgmental, but being a student of history, I have never, there has never been a culture, there has never been a nation that has degenerated the human sacrifice that God did not wipe off the face of the earth.

You cannot find one. I think we need to give ourselves to a lot of prayer just on this issue, sacrificing millions of unborn children to our lifestyles because of the inconveniences. Oh, I, we can point out a lot of needs in America, but there’s a lot of God-fearing people in America that can pray and can change things, and that’s what will change it.

For Christians would pray and get the mind of God and go to the ballot box, if we could change America and vote the mind of God. I mean, take your civic responsibilities and pray, “What would God have me to do?” and then be obedient.

1 John 5, 16 tells us to ask and seek and knock. Isaiah 59, when God was, when the prophet was talking about God’s judgment upon the nations, right in the middle of it he says, he looks for an intercessor. In verse 16 he looks for one to fill the gap. He looks for one who will pray and pray for the need.

He looks for an intercessor, and he said he found none. Ephesians 6, verse 18, talking about the pieces of the armor that we should put on, we sometimes overlook the fact that the last piece of the armor is to pray in the Spirit.

Romans 8, 27 says Christ makes intercession for us. Romans 8, 34 says the Spirit makes intercession for us. Now if Christ is making intercession and the Holy Spirit is making intercession, what ought we to be giving ourselves to?

I mean, if we’re a part of the ongoing thrust of Holy Spirit in this world, where will we be? What will we be doing with our idle time? What are you doing when nobody cares, when nobody’s looking? Are you looking for the TV or the newspaper or something to fill up that time? Or can you grab it and spend some time with your Maker?

We all have the same amount of time. Nobody’s got any more or any less than anybody else. What we do with our time would show us what is most important. 1 Timothy 2 and verse 1 says that intercession should be made. One of the first orders of business is intercession and prayers for all men.

Chapter 53, verse 12, tells us that Jesus ever lives to make intercession. Well, surely that is enough for you to see that the Lord wants us to spend some time with Him and listen and then simply be obedient.

And it doesn’t, it really doesn’t take a lot of people. Abraham one day was waiting on the Lord. According to the, Genesis 18, the Lord and a couple of angels came down and visited with Abraham, and he killed the fatted calf for the Lord and a couple of angels, and…

Sarah laughed in the tent when the Lord told Abraham that one year from today Sarah will give birth to the promised seed. But Abraham and the Lord had some good fellowship, they had some quality time together. I’m told that in America the average American family spends two minutes a week of quality time with his child. What I mean by quality time is just undivided attention.

I wonder how much undivided attention the Lord Himself longs for from you. We’re made for Him. We’re made to enjoy His presence forever. We’re put here in this world stage to grow in His likeness, to be molded in His likeness, to grow in that which He has, which He had in mind when He formed us in the womb of our mother. Let us give our time, set aside chunks of time. I’m not talking about tithing your time. I’m talking about walking with Him. We brag about surrendering our tongue. Let’s surrender our feet and walk in the Spirit.

One foot in front of another, walking with Jesus, with every breath, breathing in His good, free grace, breathing out all of the self-indulgences that we have, and disciplining ourselves to listen and then be obedient. “Try Me and see,” He said, “if I won’t pour you out a blessing.”

We can take those loved ones that we know are not walking in the righteousness and holiness that Jesus died for them to walk in, and we can take a hold of them, and we can make a difference simply because we pray. I remember on one occasion I was driving down Interstate 10, between El Paso and Tucson, someplace in that stretch, praying up a storm about my son.

While I was driving, the Holy Spirit came and simply, physically lifted that weight off my shoulders. The old Methodists talked about praying through. Well, I guess I prayed through, because the Lord just took it, and I had no idea…

How that thing was going to be worked out, but I knew it was… I only found out later how, but I knew it was… After Abraham and the Lord had had some good fellowship together, the Lord started down towards Sodom and Gomorrah.

And the Lord turned to the angels and said, “Do you suppose I should tell Abraham what I’m about to do?” So He tells Abraham, and the reason I believe He did was because He knew Abraham would take advantage of the fact that he had the Lord’s attention, and that Abraham would pray. You know the story. “Lord, You wouldn’t destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, will You, for the sake of 50 righteous?” And the Lord said, “No…”

“You came down five at a time. You wouldn’t save, You wouldn’t destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, would You, for the sake of 45?” “No.” “Well, Lord, for me to take up Your time, but, Lord, what about 40?” “No,” He said, “I won’t.” And he got down to 10, and he stopped there, because I think he knew that there were more than five in Lot’s family.

But the Lord said that He would save and not destroy Sodom and Gomorrah for the sake of 10 righteous. Now in my Bible dictionary, I don’t know where they get their facts, but it tells me that Sodom was about 10,000.

People. 10 among 10,000. That’s a Bible ratio, one among a thousand. One among a thousand. You find it in Ecclesiastes, you find it in Isaiah, you find it in the book of Proverbs, that the Lord looks for one among a thousand. What’s the population of the United States? 210, 10 million people.

210,000 people. Can you feel the call of the Holy Spirit this morning to be one of those people who simply takes time with the Lord to intercede for your country? “If My people that are called by My name shall humble themselves and pray, confessing their own sins,” the Lord says, “I will hear from heaven and heal their land.” One among a thousand.

Moses found himself in this position of having to be an intercession, of intercessor. He was in Exodus 32. We see it in the 32nd chapter of… Moses, he’s been in real fellowship with the Lord, he’s been in fasting, in prayer for 40 days, 40 nights. He’s gotten the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments, from God.

I’m sure he’s very humbled but very excited about the fact that he’s touched God. And Exodus 32 begins with the Lord saying to Abraham, I mean to Moses, “Moses, get down from this mountain, for this, thy people which you’ve brought out of Egypt have corrupted themselves and made themselves a golden calf and bowed down and worshipped.” And I can just see Moses getting rocked back on his heels and say, “You know, what do you mean, my people? I mean, You’re the one that provided the miracles. You’re the one…

That’s providing for them. You’re the one God had divided the Red Sea. What do you mean my people?” And one man, standing before God and crying for mercy, according to Exodus 32, causes God to tell Moses, “Let Me alone, Moses, that My wrath may wax hot against this people.” One man.

And God says to Moses, “I’ll make of you a great nation.” Now that must have been quite a temptation. I mean, to be called the father of the chosen, like Abraham is called. But Moses responded to the Lord, “Well, they’re saying about You that You just brought him out here to kill him in the desert. You want it to be true?” And Moses just reminded God of His own character.

And God withheld His judgment on the people because of Moses. It’s what it says. Moses. Moses went down the mountain and when he saw what God had seen Moses, well, he hadn’t quite made it to the statue of the Lord’s character, but he divided among the people. A lot of people died that day. He ground up that golden calf into powder and made him drink it. A lot of people died. And he went back up on the mountain and began to pray. And it says in Exodus 32, you can take your Bibles and read it and underline it, “Lord, these people have committed a great sin. Bowed down and made themselves a golden calf and have worshipped. And if You will forgive their sins.” And then in the King James Bible, in the NIV, I haven’t checked all the different translations, but there is a hyphen there. The sentence is not completed.

Got interested and went to some of the theological libraries. Looked it up, and they tell me that at this place in Scripture, in Exodus 32, there is, in some of the original manuscripts, some writings that the best linguists in the land don’t know what it said.

Moses couldn’t, in his own spirit, anticipate the cross. But the Spirit that was in Moses could. My personal belief is that Moses prayed in the Spirit. But you check it out in Exodus 32, and he goes on and he says, “But if not, blot my name out of Your book.”

Talk about intercession. Sounds like Paul in Romans 9 saying, “But, blot my name out of Your book, that I could be damned, that my brothers, according to the flesh, could be saved.” Well, Paul couldn’t fill that place. Moses couldn’t fill that place. But Jesus did.

That’s just the point. We can become intercessors. Just like Jesus Christ did. “Forgive them. Hold not this sin against them. Let the judgment that should fall on them fall on Me.” Because God has found a mediator, because God has found a sacrifice for the sin of the world, we can be intercessors.

I have a feeling in the kingdom of the Spirit of God that there is a priestly order of Melchizedek, of intercessors. People whose calling in the Spirit of God is to be intercessors, to give their life. In the closet, to intercede, and to make a difference. I mentioned the other day that, about America going back and feeding its nations. Do you know that Glenn Clark, and Stanley Jones, and Starr Daily, and I think it was about eight men went to the president and said, after the second war, “We ought to, we ought to do this.” They’d prayed a lot about it.

The president said, “Well, we’ve only got one general whose ego is big enough to put his name on it.” And so they called it the Marshall Plan, but we went back and fed our enemies, because eight men, according to our history books, prayed, and then put feet to their prayers.

And we went back and fed our enemies. He doesn’t need a lot of people. He just needs a few people who mean business, real intercessors who just don’t take no for an answer. I talked earlier, I want to talk again, just for a few moments, about Saul of Tarsus and Stephen. Because isn’t that what Stephen did?

Releasing him from the old law of a life for a life. And bound him in grace under the cross of Christ and said, “Hold not this sin to him.” And Stephen did not get to see the answer to his prayer in this life. But God did answer his prayer. And Saul of Tarsus became Paul the apostle because Stephen prayed.

Can you receive the challenge of the Holy Spirit this morning to be an intercessor? Not to judge. God wants us to love the sinner. Oh, yes, we despise the sin, but God wants us to love the sinner.

To see them from the eyes of the cross. Those for whom Christ died, and somehow by our own living and our own deeds and our words of love and care can show that God loves them. Can you say amen to that? I told you about my daughter who I asked to forgive me. What would have happened if I hadn’t done that? I could easily have a daughter in rebellion today.

I mean putting feet to your intercession. I discovered I loved her just the way she was. A rebellious little 14-year-old girl who wasn’t going to do dad’s will no matter what he did. He could beat her to an inch of his life. You know, the Bible says that the rod of correction drives out foolishness, but stubbornness needs another remedy.

And what she needed was her father to ask forgiveness. Well, church, our call from the Holy Spirit this morning is to determine to give ourselves to intercession. Not judgment, not sympathy. Doesn’t mean they’re right. You simply love them with the compassion that comes from the cross. And that is not a human reaction.

That is the reaction that’s put in you by Holy Ghost. And Holy Spirit will work it out. And He will positively answer your prayers. Because you’re not telling God what to do. You’re praying in accordance with His will.

God bless you.