Bible Verse: Luke 18:1-8
Full Sermon Transcript
WELCOME
Pastor Chris Paavola:
PROSPER THE CITY
Thank you, Grant. Hey everybody, good morning. It is like gorgeous outside and you guys are in church. I am so proud of you for going, “You know what? We’re going to start our day in God’s house and then we’ll go enjoy the lake.” So yeah, thank you guys for being here. I had the Sunday off last week and it feels like a month since I’ve been up here. I missed you guys. It was nice to have a week off, but Grant, you did a great job. And then he preached, but then also we talked about the Prosper of the City projects. I was just so, I don’t know if this is the right word, but I was just proud of you guys as a church for the things that you’ve been doing through Prosper the City.
Okay, a thousand volunteer hours going back into the city, but you guys, there are homeless people who have blankets because of the work you did. There are teenagers who have a gaga-pit. I’m not even really sure what that is, but they have a gaga-pit because of the work you did. And then there’s a recent widow whose home was renovated because of the work you did. Look at God and what he did through you. So thank you for being the hands and feet of Jesus. Just awesome to watch.
Also, seek the peace and prosper the city to which I have sent you into exile.
Jeremiah 29:7
The reason we do prosper the city every year though, the reason we do that and make this part of the initiative is because of this command that God gives to his people. In a book called Jeremiah, it’s a book in the Bible. He says these words, “Seek the peace and prosper the city to which I have sent you into exile.” And, so we do that. We seek the prosperity of the city where we are, where God has sent us. We want to prosper the city.
Also, seek the peace and prosper the city to which I have sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.
Jeremiah 29:7
Now, whether or not you were able to be a part of prosper of the city or whether you were in prosper of the city, all of us can do the next part of this verse because that’s only the first half of the verse. The second half of the verse says, “Pray to the Lord for the city because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”
PRAY FOR YOUR CITY
Praying for the city. One of our vision statements here at the church, we’ve got six of them. They’re all, you can go in the hallway and look out there and see the vision statements that we have. But one of the vision statements is to be a church growing in prayer. And I love that, not just because I have a heart for prayer, but honestly, it’s inclusive for all of us. Regardless of where you are in your faith journey, we can all say, “I have room for growth in my prayer life.” You never arrive. You’re never there. And for whether you’re new to the faith or looking into the faith or tenured in the faith, you can grow in prayer. It might mean that, okay, growing for you might be praying more regularly at certain times. Or growing in prayer for you might be, I’m going to pray bigger prayers or I’m going to pray a little bit longer prayers.
It might be, I’m going to start using question marks in prayer and practice listening. It might be, I’m going to get specific in prayer. We’ve talked about all of these things, but, but, but I think all of us, regardless of our tenure in this thing called faith and regardless of where you are, all of us can get better at praying for the city. Anecdotally, I went back and I looked at our prayer requests for like the last few months.
I only saw very, very, very, very few prayer requests for the city. Most often what I see is prayers for ourselves and our loved ones. And that’s great. We should pray about finances and health and upcoming trips and thank you for graduations and all that. All of those things are great things to pray for, but scripture also tells us to pray for our city. So what I want to talk about today is the importance of praying for our city, why it matters, why it’s hard and what we’re going to do as a church to get better at it so we can be a church growing in prayer. That’s what we’re going to talk about this morning.
INTERCESSION IN THE BIBLE
So, the idea of praying for someone is this fancy word called intercession.
INTERCESSION
And you’ve maybe heard that word outside of church, but that’s mainly a church word. But I think there’s enough, like we have an idea of what is.
You can kind of break down what the word means just by looking at the structure of the word. There’s intercession. We know what interception is. It’s where you steal something. You know what interrupting is, that’s where you stop something. We know what intervening is where you meddle in affairs that aren’t your own. Intercession means that you’re speaking in behalf of someone else.You’re becoming the third party, you’re triangulating the relationship and speaking to one person about another. And you’re saying, “I would like to intercede on their behalf and say this. ” Our closest example would be like a lawyer or an attorney. They intercede for you to the judge or the jury and they make an intercession. This is what I would like to say in their behalf. An intercession is all over the Bible. It’s actually really fascinating to just kind of do a survey, a tour through the Bible and look for this thing called intercession.
So you go at the very beginning, the book of Genesis. There’s a man named Abraham in the very beginning and we see him interceding for a city asking God to show mercy to it. And then you go to the next book, Exodus and you find Moses and you find him like interceding for the sick and his community. And you find Moses interceding for the sins of the nation of Israel. And then that same theme of praying for the sins of the nation, you see Daniel doing that. Another guy named Nehemiah doing that. You see prophets praying and interceding for the sick, prophets like Elijah, Elisha, Samuel. You see kings interceding for armies at war. Intercession is everywhere in the Old Testament. Then you get to the New Testament. You see the early church interceding for the persecuted and the sick. When early Christians are in prison for their faith, the church gathers to intercede for them asking God to free them.
INTERCESSION IN JESUS
And then the church also intercedes for their enemies. The ones who persecute them because they are trying to live out the way of Jesus.
…..pray for those who persecute you
Matthew 5:44
Jesus who said, “Pray for your enemies. “Pray for those who persecute you.“ Not just the people you love, not just the people you like or who are pleasant to you. No, pray for your enemies too.” And then they saw Jesus do this. He modeled it for them. As he goes to the cross and he’s hanging there on the cross, he intercedes and he says, “Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. ” That’s intercession. He’s interceding to the Father and behalf of his enemies. It’s wild. And actually, it’s not just something Jesus did for his enemies.
20 My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through my message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
John 17
This just something Jesus did for you in John 17. So John and his account of the night that Jesus is arrested about to be tortured, he has the wherewithal to turn his thoughts from himself to you.
And he prays for you the night of his arrest. Take a look at these words. My prayer, this is Jesus praying. “My prayer is not for them alone, I pray also for those who will believe you, those who will believe in me through their message that all of them may be one, father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so the world may believe that you have sent me.” Jesus prayed for you that night. And it’s not just something he did that night. It’s something he still does now.
Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died, more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
Romans 8:34
The apostle Paul makes this comment and this is wild, wild stuff that right now Jesus is at the right hand of the Father interceding for you still. Take a look. Romans 8:34. “Who is to condemn?” No one. “Christ Jesus is the one who died more than that who was raised, who is at the right hand of God”. Is, not will be, not just was, all of it is at the right hand of God right now also interceding for us.
Meaning when you sin or when an accusation is brought against you by your accuser. Well, this is what they did. This is how they’re wrong. Jesus look and he’s like, ” No, Father, I died for that sin too.
And Father, if I may intercede, I died for that sin too. “Would you stop? I also died for that one and that one and that one right now is interceding for you right now whispering your name, your name in the ear of his heavenly Father. Oh, wow. It even gets cooler than that. God gives you his spirit and take a look at what the spirit does. Apostle Paul says in the same way the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. We don’t know what we ought to pray for, but the spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans and he who searches our heart knows the mind of the spirit because the spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. Right now the Holy Spirit is in you interceding for the Father, revealing the will of God to you. As you wrestle and struggle of where should I go to college?
God is interceding and saying bowling green. He is interceding for you.
So get this, you guys. This means that right now Jesus is interceding to the Father for you and the Holy Spirit is in you interceding to you for the Father. I’ll say that again because it’s like a little verbal gymnastics. Jesus intercedes for you to the Father and the Spirit is in you interceding to you for the Father. Whoa.
26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 An he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.
Romans 8
This is a Sunday that’s typically called Trinity Sunday in some churches. There’s the Trinity right there. It’s in relationship with himself, God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and then invites you into this relationship through this thing called intercession. Wow. Wow, man.
He’s interceding right now. If you’ll allow me just one quick detour because I think this is just mind melting cool and it’s this like beautiful truth hiding in plain sight. When we get together and we pray, we pray the Lord’s prayer. It’s called the Lord’s prayer, but there’s this … Okay, there’s this moment. The disciples watch Jesus pray and they’re like, ” Jesus, will you teach us to pray like that? We want to pray like that. “And Jesus teaches them to pray. And he says,” When you pray, pray like this. Use these words. “And he says,” Our Father, not my Father, that would make sense to our American individualistic Western way of thinking. My Father, my personal relationship with God, my faith. “No, no. He says,” Our Father. “Meaning that right away, he’s making you aware of your responsibility to the people around you, that you’re in this together.
You’re a part of something bigger than yourself, our Father. And then just like the Holy Spirit intercedes to you for the Father, he teaches us to intercede for the Father in the very next phrase. “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” You’re interceding for God’s will. Wow. But it continues, give us this day. Not give me this day, my daily bread. No, give us this day our daily bread. And when you pray those words, you’re not just praying about your credit card bills, you’re praying about the food on the table of the person sitting next to you and the food for the person begging on the street corner on Capitol Avenue.
Give us this day, our daily bread. And then just like Nehemiah, just like Daniel, just like Moses, you intercede for the sins of the people around you. Just like Jesus says, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. You, he teaches you to pray. Forgive us our trespasses. Not just me, my trespasses. Forgive us our trespasses. And you are praying for the sins of the person sitting next to you. Even Doug? Yes, even Doug. Kathy, her sins, Kathy’s sins too. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And then it ends with another intercession for God’s kingdom.
Hiding in plain sight. Jesus, the great intercessor. When he teaches you how to pray, he teaches you a prayer of intercession. There’s no way I can talk about this and us not do this together. So we’re going to pray these words. And for some of us, these words are very familiar. You’ve prayed them thousands of times, but I want us to pray this prayer together, these words you’ve prayed before, but just notice, notice the language that intercedes for the people around you. As we pray together, the words the great intercessor taught us to pray:
Our Father,
Who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven,
Give us this day our daily bread,
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us,
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil,
For thine is the kingdom,
And the power,
And the glory,
Forever and ever, amen.
Lord, teach us to pray. Wow. It’s a prayer of intercession.
INTERCESSION
The question is begged, you guys. It really is. If scripture so readily and repeatedly commands and demonstrates intercession, to pray for others, to pray for our enemies and to pray for our city. Why are we so bad at it? I’ll tell you the reasons that I’m not good at praying for the city and why I struggle to pray for others. Maybe you identify with some of these. I’ll just go ahead and incriminate myself. Okay? First of all, I’m busy. I go from shuffling kids off to soccer practice to getting ready for a meeting. I’ll just work late to get ready for this thing and oh my goodness, I haven’t mowed my lawn. The neighbors are calling and asking if we’re okay because you have to part the grass to get to my front door. I don’t have time. I don’t have time to sit there and think about the needs of others.
I’m so consumed with my own needs. And that kind of gets to the second reason I struggle to pray for the city. I’m selfish. I’m thinking about my credit card bills. I’m thinking about that sound that my car is making when I drive it.
I’m thinking about my parents’ health. How am I supposed to stop all of that noise and suddenly take up the needs of somebody living on government assistance and that neighborhood, which gets to the third reason why I think I struggle to pray for this city and why I struggle to intercede for the city. Out of sight, out of mind. I’m just driving the major thoroughfares and you probably could map where I’m driving like Mingus Riverside Capitol Columbia. That’s pretty much the routes I take to everything. I don’t have to drive through that neighborhood. Out of sight, out of minds.
I don’t like that part of town. I’ll take the long way around it. And so if I don’t see it, I don’t know what to pray for. And there might be some other reasons in there, but those are the big ones for me. And I bet the same is true for you. Just a hunch.
PRAYERWALKING
That’s why I’m so excited about what we’re doing this summer. We are going to do the only thing I know the best thing I know to make me pray for the city. There’s nothing even like in the same stratosphere. Nothing even comes close to getting me to pray for the city like God wants me to, like this thing called prayer walking. And we realized something. So when you came in, you got a bulletin and then in the bulletin is a card. Go ahead and take it out. Take it out, take it out, take it out.
Actually, Nate, if you’re back, would you go Nate? Yeah, if you want to grab some more of these cards and walk down the aisle for anyone who didn’t get one, our hospitality team is missing all of a sudden. Anyway, so on here is nine different dates where we’re walking and praying and you could see the map of where we’re going to meet and we’re going to meet at that location and we’re going to pray. Yeah, Nick, if you want to grab some cards, it’d be awesome. Thank you, buddy. That’s where we’re meeting and we’re going to show up and we’re going to do this thing called prayer walking. And here’s what we realized. When we started prayer walking four years ago, we cast the vision of why this matters, why this is important. And we started talking about how we’re going to do this again this summer.
And then I was like, “Oh my goodness. So many people in the room won’t know what is this thing prayer walking.” Yeah, Nick just hold it up if he didn’t get a card when he walked out. Yep, there you go. So many people in the room won’t know what this thing is because they’ve never heard of this. They’ve never done this before. They don’t know what I’m talking about because check this out, you guys. And this is true.
PRAYERWALKING
When we started this in 2022 and cast the vision for prayer walking, two thirds of the people sitting around you weren’t here yet.
More than half the people sitting around you right now, we’re not here in 2022. And you know why they are here? Because we walked and prayed for the city. When you pray or walk the city, the city starts showing up. And so I was like, “Well, we should probably explain what prayer walking is and why it’s important and how we do this. ” And I think the best way for me to explain prayer walking and to kind of describe and answer all of the FAQs that are floating out there is just describe how I started prayer walking. Again, I’m the guy who struggles to pray for my city. I’m not very good at this. And right out of seminary, which is a school to become a pastor, I was tasked with planting a church in the city of St. Louis. And if you look at my skin color, I was definitely an exception for the neighborhood and I felt an extreme just cultural difference and just completely inadequate for the task at hand.
I was way over my skis. What am I going to do? And the only way I know how to do things when I don’t know what to do, when we’re desperate, that’s when we pray. So I was like, “I’m just going to be praying about this. ” So I went for a walk in a neighborhood where we were close to where the church was going to be and I just said, “God, let me see what you see as you walk these streets. You got to help me. ” And I wanted to kind of see who God was trying to reach in the community, but I just started walking and I decided I was going to pray what I see. I found out later this is called prayer walking. You go for a walk, you pray what you see. Don’t overthink it. Okay. As I’m walking, I remember distinctly I saw a yard sign.
It said Paulette Carr for city council right there in a yard. And since I’m praying what I see, I prayed for Paulette. Lord, I pray for Paulette that she would make decisions that honor you and govern in a way that pleases you. And then while I’m praying for Paulette, I hear the sound across the street, this, and I look across the street and there’s a woman raking in a garden. She’s raking leaves out of the garden. She drops her. She’s got a big sun hat on, gloves. She drops the rake, gets down her hands and knees and starts pulling weeds in the garden. And since I’m praying what I see, I pray for her. I say, Lord, I pray for her that you would give her thoughts and conversations about you today. But then I prayed the metaphor. And I was like, Lord, I pray that you would grow a church in this community like a wise gardener, that you would prune us, that we might bear much fruit for your glory.
So I didn’t just pray the literal thing. I also prayed the metaphor of the thing that I saw. And I kept on seeing things to pray for. And on this walk, I kept on seeing things to pray for. I prayed for joggers, jogging, construction crews constructing, kids at recessing. And I kept on praying and I got done with the walk and I realized something.
None of those prayers were prayers I would have prayed if I had stayed at home, none of them. And then I started thinking, oh my goodness. It felt like God was bringing me his prayer requests instead of the other way around. And then I realized I just prayed for my city. I’m not good at it, but I prayed for my city for 30 minutes. I couldn’t think of the last time I’d ever done that because I’d never done that before. And so I was like, “Well, that was effective.” And I did it the next week and I did it again the next week and the next week and it became a pattern. Got a map, little marker traced on there where he walked. I wanted to prayer walk all of the neighborhoods around that church.
And today there is a church in the city of St. Louis that was not there before. And you can’t tell the story of a church in St. Louis being planted and growing and the baptisms and the life chains and the addictions broken and the change in crime. You can’t tell any of the miraculous stories of what happened at that church apart from the prayer walking that preceded it. So I get to Battle Creek here, God calls me to be a part of this congregation and to pastor it. I get here and I’m the new guy and I had this thought.
Why would we stop doing the things that built a church just because we’re at an established church? Why wouldn’t we pray? The mission’s the same. Why wouldn’t we pray for the city? So like when you’re the new guy, you have like this brief window where you can say, “We’re going to try this thing and people trust you just because you’re the new guy and they want to … ” So I was like, “The first thing we’re going to do guys is we’re going to go on a prayer walk.” And they’re like, “What?” I’m like, “Just meet me here at the church.” And on that Wednesday, a whole bunch of people showed up and we prayer walked this neighborhood praying what you see. We did it the next week and we did it the next week. Before we sat and created a mission statement, before we made any vision statements about where is God leading us, we talked to him about the city he wants to reach and you can’t tell the remarkable story of St. Mark apart from the prayer walks that preceded it.
We have walked past your houses. That’s why some of you are here today. We walked past your house and we prayed for you long before we ever met you. Look around. Amen. And you don’t have to take my word for it. About the third prayer walk, fourth prayer walk, something like that. We had a camera and a little iPhone and we just asked you guys to talk about prayer walking. This is 2022, four years ago. Take a look. Would you keep us safe as we walk these streets, Lord? And then let us see what you see as you walk these streets with us. In Jesus’ name and all guys people said. Amen. Okay, let’s start with the text.
What have you learned about prayers prayer walks? I have learned there’s so much to pray about. Praying out loud has been quite the experience. It’s taught me to express myself more. I just learned that we can pray about everything and for everything. Because you’ve gone on a few of these prayer walks. This is my third one. Third prayer walk. Yes, sir. Yes. And every time you feel like you’re growing in your prayer life? Absolutely. What have you learned about prayer on these prayer walks? It could be a lot more casual than sitting and holding your hands and closing your eyes. It can be something you experience everywhere. Anybody can do that. It brings the community together. You can just about pray with anyone. It’s spontaneous. It helps bring people together. It brings family together. It’s becoming much easier to identify metaphors in the prayer walk than it was before.
I learned that with each prayer walk that prayer gets easier. That is so very easy to pray. You find so many things along the walk that is just … God gives that thought into your head and you pray it. I prayed what I see.
That map is now hanging right out there next to the parent room and it’s got a lot more blue lines traced down there of where we’ve walked. And we are going to keep prayer walking until every piece of concrete in this city is prayed for. So I know in the room there’s probably just some other apprehensions and stuff. So let me just speak to those and We’ll close our time together here. If you aren’t at a place where I don’t know what to pray, I don’t like praying with people out loud. Okay, just walk with someone and let them pray and you can listen. We’ll give you a little sheet of paper that’s got prayers written on it.
Maybe you’re like, well, physically I don’t know if I can. Here’s what we’re going to do this year. Every location that we show up, I’m going to stay at that location while people go out and walk and we’re going to have a group of people that pray just with me staying at that location while everyone else walks. And then, well, I can’t walk very far. Okay. We have long routes, medium routes, and short routes. And we’ll hand you a route with the prayers to pray and you go walk and pray what you see. That’s it. You either pray the literal thing for the thing you say or the metaphor. So you pass a fire hydrant. Thank you God for our firefighters. And then you could pray the metaphor. I pray that living water would flow through this community and streams of life would come to this home.
It’s beautiful. And you just prayed it because you went on a prayer walk.
Maybe you’re thinking it’s hot. I’m a Michigander. I can’t handle anything over 80. Listen, listen, we have water. We bring in coolers and then popsicles afterwards for the kids. So a lot of these places are schools and playgrounds and stuff. So the kids playing the playgrounds afterwards and stuff. Families go on prayer walks. Ashley has sheets to help kids to learn how to pray like, oh, find something red, find something blue, find something yellow to give thanks for, or finger prayers. And just a lot of things to help kids. Kids can learn how to pray. Kids are part of the vision to be a church growing in prayer, right? No, maybe you’re like, I just don’t like people. Okay, listen.
That’s between you and Jesus, but he’s probably working on you on that one. Our first walk this week is going to be here at the church. You already know where it is. You’ve been here before. I want hundreds of people to be here on Wednesday night, hundreds. I want each and every one of you here. You have the Holy Spirit in you interceding for the Father for this city. You have the spirit of Jesus in you who interceded for you the night he was betrayed. He interceded for his enemies as they were persecuting him. And he’s in you too. You are an intercessor. You are called to be an intercessor. And I love the idea that hundreds of people are going to be here on Wednesday and walk this neighborhood and just pray that God continues to do his mission here.
And I want you. I want you to be there. Don’t give yourself the excuse that I don’t do that thing. I keep my church on a Sunday morning. Stop it. Let’s take a step forward together. We can do this.
INTERCESSION
And here’s what I know will happen. Somebody’s going to come on their very first prayer walk. I’m going to be like bursting my heart just so happy for you about what you’re going to experience. But then what happens next? Because you interceded for your city, marriages will be healed. I believe that. Because you intercede for your city on a prayer walk, the economy will improve. Businesses will return to Battle Creek. Because you intercede for the city on a prayer walk, addictions will be broken. Thank you for your intercession.
PRAYER
Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we are sorry that we have failed to pray for our city like you command.
Forgive us, Lord. Make us all better at intercession for our city, for our enemies, for our loved ones, and for your kingdom. And Lord, teach us to pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
