Prayer // Jesus, Our Advocate

Coming soon!

Good morning church, good morning.

Couple of things this morning before we get into the word. First and foremost, I had to get glasses. I got glasses. Now, no clapping.

Here's the thing, I wouldn't say anything but something that I've learned here recently is that apparently my public choices in fashion and design are very important to many of you and really cause a lot of stir. Some of you maybe also noticed I cut my hair and like for many, that was quite a shock for you. And people have been waiting for me to make an announcement of why I cut my hair and why I wear glasses. So I'd like to address a few of the things that people have come and asked me about to see if this is what's going on. Some people have asked if I'm going through a midlife crisis.

I have responded to that, I don't think so but midlife apparently is going through me quite strong at the moment. And so that is happening. I've had people ask me if I was getting ready to join the military, that is not happening. I've had people ask me if I was sick, that one was sad and the answer is no, I am not sick but thank you for thinking that's what I look like.

I have asked that I was thinking of joining a contemplative prayer group and this was a requirement to cut your hair. That is not the case. I was asked if I am thinking about becoming an MMA fighter.

That is also not the case. Another person asked me if I was about to leave the church to go join the corporate world and I needed to do this because it's more professional. I don't even know if that's true in any sense of the word other than I'm definitely not leaving here nor am I going to join a corporate job. And I also don't think shaved head is the most corporate look but maybe I'm just very disconnected because I've worked at the church for 20 plus years. So I don't know what's going on. Let's see, am I missing anything, am I missing something else?

I'm sure there's others, there's been a lot. I've had way more conversations about my hair with some of you than the word of the Lord in 20 years. Like it's really amazing what happens. And so if you wanna know why I shaved my head is because my wife thinks I'm really beautiful with the shaved head, so that's why I did it.

And that's it. And also it's easier. And also life. And why I have glasses? Because I didn't realize how bad my vision was until I got glasses and I was like, oh, I can see. And that Jesus is here to bring the restoration of life. So now that that's done,

I do have a few other things I wanna address before we get into God's word. First of all, Tuesday is Veterans Day. Tuesday is Veterans Day. And so I'd like to do this. If you served in any of the armed forces, would you just stand up so we can honor you this morning? Like it's such a huge thing. Thank you so much for your service.

We never get to do enough, but we appreciate you. We thank you. It's awesome to see. We love you all. Man, incredible.

I hope that Tuesday is just a really great day for you.

And man, we're thankful. We're thankful for your service. So that's just really important. The second thing I wanted to just let you guys know, because I'm super proud and it's amazing. Last week we took up a special offering to get resources and collected canned goods for people who may be in need due to the SNAP shortage and everything that's going on. Obviously that's still in flux and still in effect, but I wanted to let you know that we as a church raised just under $5,000 of funds, like cash funds. (Congregation Applauding) And I didn't get the total data. Pastor Andrew, do you know how many pounds of food we ended up donating? Did we get that data?

Many pounds. I mean, Andrew said he almost couldn't lift it all at once, which means that's a lot of weight people. He's really strong.

So, I mean, that's probably like 7,000 pounds. I don't know. But no, it was a lot. And so it was really awesome. But all that being said, we were able to help several different families within our church, but I still feel in my heart that there's people who are here that you may be in need of assistance. And I just want to let you know, just like I said, there's no guilt, there's no shame. We are here and we have funds immediately available to help people. Like we have our process lined out. It's very easy. It's very simple. It's very quick. And so if you need something, whether it's today or in the near future, we are here for you. If you go to this church, we take care of the people who are within these walls and we want to be able to help you so much. And so you can come see me, you can come see Pastor Andrew or any of the staff and we'll get you connected. It's a really, really simple process. But man, I thought that was really, really cool. And then the last thing I wanted to let you know

and share with you before we get into the word, is just this is more out of obedience and transparency than the necessary, the process. But this is, I think it's important for our church family to know this. So our church, just like I'm sure many of your homes, we always operate off of a church budget, right? We have a church budget and every year we forecast things and we have budgets and like that kind of stuff. I'm sure you do that to some degree in your home. Some of you very detailed and some of you, you know, you get some post-it notes out and it works out, right? So we have a budget and that we adopt and we live within every single month. In the last two years, we've had what they would call a budget shortage or a funding shortage. So we didn't receive as a church as much as what our original budget was. So we made an adjustment this year and we're still gonna fall short this year, at least minus God doing work, which He's always capable and willing to do. But I wanna put that before you because before things become like an issue that is like on a grander scale, I think it's important to talk to the church family and let them know where we're at as a church. And so this is a thing that we have to experience. And you know, it's hard because unlike a business where it's like, oh, we'll just make more widgets or go and sell more product like a church, we're here because we are funded by what we as a community do together. And I can tell you that our staff and our board are very meticulous in not just the recording of our resources, but in really stretching and being good stewards of what we have and the things that we walk through. But that is the place that we find ourselves. And so my invitation for you to pray about, if you're a visitor here, welcome, I don't usually talk about my glasses or my hair, nor do I usually give business related information about our church. But if this is your church home, if this is where you're at, then I just want you to prayerfully consider if there's anything God's laying on your heart or in the process of being able to support a church financially in a different season. If you want to know what it looks like, as far as what would completely offset and change the deficit, is if every family, I mean, if every family, like a family member who goes to this church, increase their giving by $55, it would more than supplement, and that's a month, that would more than supplement the entire needs of the church and put us in the opposite direction, like put us in the surplus as opposed to a negative. And for some of you, $55, you can't do. For some of you, $55 ain't nothing but a G thing. That's how it goes, right? Everyone's in different places. Some of you, you're already giving above and beyond. Some of you, you've never participated in this journey of being able to support the church and partner with the church financially. And that's just something that we want to do because there's things that we will have to change

as a result of not being able to do this because unlike certain entities like the US government, we just can't go into a deficit and then not pay the bill. That's just not how it works, unfortunately, if you're not upon that. So that's where we're at. And so I don't love sharing real negative Nelly news. Like that's not my thing, but I also don't like pretending like things don't exist or putting your hand in the sand. And so I want to put that before you because I know some of you can give financially. I know some of you can pray. And some of you will come up with real creative ideas on how to support our church in a really meaningful and beautiful way. And none of those will happen if you don't know the need exists. And so I want to be there and be transparent. If any of you are like, hey, I want some more details about that. Come and see me, it's an open book. There's nothing secretive. It's just boring financial numbers, but you can totally know as much as you want. I mean, look at my glasses, okay? I'm ready to talk about numbers. And I want my card again. So I looked more like a professor instead of, well, my kids told me I looked like, which was a prison inmate. So they referenced the show, but I don't want to reference it because it's not a holy show who they said I looked like. Some of you already made the connection.

But so we can invite Jesus back into this place. Will you stand with me so we can pray

and invite his presence back?

Hebrews chapter seven, verse 25.

Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost

those who draw near to God through him.

Since he always lives to make intercession for them.

Let's pray this morning. Father, we thank you for today.

We thank you that we serve a savior, a king, who's alive and well,

who always lives to save us to the uttermost by making intercession on our behalf.

We thank you for Jesus.

In your holy name we pray, amen.

Amen, okay, you can be seated. You can be seated. All right, we're in our prayer series. And man, we've been really enjoying it. If you've not gotten a chance to sign up for the prayer class, you should do it. It starts this Wednesday and we're gonna continue to press deeper into these things, have conversations. I'm telling you, it is so much fun. Those classes are great and we've really been enjoying it. I've even heard that there's a chance on the last Wednesday that we do it that there will even be a really fun dessert potluck that comes as the last Wednesday. So it's gonna be a lot of fun. So if you've not made one of the classes, you come. If you've been to all the classes, don't break the tradition now. You can sign up online. But here's what I wanna talk to you about.

We've walked through this idea of the four categories, talking to God, which is like maybe looking at more liturgical prayers or free written prayers. And we've kind of walked through that a little bit. Talking with God, so interceding or petitioning in our own words, in our own conversation with God. We took about listening to God and believing that he speaks to us and giving opportunities for him to speak to us. And then we also talked last week about just being with God and allowing ourselves to just be in his presence and allow just his very presence to transform us and what that looks like. And I think that's great. But today I wanna talk a little bit more just about the practicality of prayer and intercession and any of these things really. Like what does it mean? Because if there's anything, and again, this is speaking from personal experience, there's like two things usually that kind of keep us away from prayer or make us feel like maybe prayer is not super effectual in our lives or like we're not doing a good job. And for me, it's one of two things. And they're polar opposite at times. So in some ways, I will sit there and think, well, I don't need to pray

because I actually don't need God's help to do this.

Anyone ever feel that way? Whether it's like you actually think that, or maybe you think that's what God thinks about you. Like you should do that yourself.

Like because I do that to my kids sometimes, right? Like my kid will be like, can you do this for me? I'd be like, you're 17 years old. You can do that for yourself.

And I'm a really good father, as you can tell.

But like sometimes I'm thinking because you want them to develop, it's like, no, you do that for yourself, right? Or I think, well, I don't need your help, which is really a really bad idea. But we have this idea like, I don't need God's help. And Jesus actually makes this really clear in John chapter 17 when he's talking about abiding and the vine and the branches and we're in practice. But at the end of the day, what Jesus says is apart from me,

you can do nothing,

which is a good place to come to in realization in life. Apart from God, I can do nothing, which means there's an invitation from him, the opposite, which is that you should invite me into everything, into every area of your life, that there's no expectation that God sets out there and says, hey, I need you to fly this one solo. I'm checked out over here.

You take care of that. No, the invitation is do it. And sometimes I've found myself either thinking that God wants me to do it on my own, so I don't pray. Or I think, yeah, yeah, yeah, I got this. I know how to do this. I don't need him for that. And both of them are really wrong. And some of you feel the same way. And maybe if we were just looking at statistics, maybe that would be the minority who feel that way, although I think there's still plenty of us here. But there's another category, and I think this is probably more common, although not necessarily, which is this. People don't pray because they are dealing with the fact that they are not perfect.

So in essence, they sinned. They did something wrong, whether recently or in the past. And they deal with guilt and the condemnation. And they think that maybe God's angry at them or frustrated at them. And that, well, I can't go there and talk to him because he's mad at me. And if I bring it up, he's just gonna bring that back up again. So I can't ask him for something new because I still haven't fully healed from that other thing.

And so I just can't go to him.

And listen, sin is a true reality that we deal with,

even for believers, that we still fall short. You've probably heard these verses, but you know Romans chapter three, verse 23, it says, "For all have sinned "and fallen short of the glory of God." Every person here has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. I love how it says in first John chapter one, verse eight, it says, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves."

And the truth is not in us, right? Now, praise God, we have Jesus and we have forgiveness and we're gonna talk about this. But there is a reality that we all fall short. We all make mistakes. We all miss God's best for us.

And that happens.

But although there's a reality and we need to acknowledge that that is the case, that cannot be the thing that defines us and keeps us separated from who God is. Because that's an inappropriate or an inaccurate picture of who God is and who Jesus is. And it takes one step further because you know that you've made mistakes and you know places where you've fallen short, but there's one thing that even elevates it even more, that sometimes we get a little hesitant to talk about because we don't wanna sound like too kooky of a Christian. But here's the thing you have to remember.

The enemy of your soul, Satan, is called in Revelation 12, the accuser of the brethren. And he goes around making accusations against you to yourself, to those around you. And the Bible says, even before the presence of God, that he is the accuser, that Satan, which that word means the adversary.

It doesn't mean the guy with the pitchfork and the time. It means the adversary. Your adversary goes around accusing you and here's the problem. Sometimes the accusations he makes about you to you are true.

And boy, that stinks when it's true.

About something in your past or even something in the present that you're struggling with.

And so all of a sudden you find yourself like, I know I've made mistakes and this thing just keeps bringing it up. And so I can't go to my father. I can't go to God in prayer because I'm disqualified.

I wouldn't listen to me. Why would he listen to me?

And all of a sudden it's like, I need something to help me.

And I love what God's response, knowing that this would be the process and the pattern. I love what God's response is. He didn't create a form that you could fill out and then somehow get access to his presence. He didn't create a 10 step process like, hey, once you do these 10 things, then we'll be good and you'll get back. Now, men have tried to do that, a system of penance and a system of how to earn forgiveness. Like that has been it, but that is not, the reality of what the Bible says. What the Bible says, and it's so clear in John chapter, 1 John chapter two, it says this, "My little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin."

Right, the goal is not to sin. Right, we understand that. It says, "But if anyone does sin,

we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous.

He is the propitiation," in other words, it could be atonement, "for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world." So he says that we have Jesus in heaven and he says that he is our advocate. Now, I grew up watching this show. I can't tell you that it was a great show. I can't even tell you, I don't think it was a really bad show. It was on cable TV back then. It was on USA. Maybe some of you watched it. It was called JAG, Judge Advocate General. Anyone watch JAG? Thank you for the rest of the people who are now older than me and they look at me like crazy because I was watching reruns as a homeschool child. Thanks, JAG.

And they were like military, they were Navy attorneys, lawyers, right? And they were the advocates of people who got falsely accused and they had to investigate, right? And I loved it. It was a great show. It was really cool. I don't know if it was a great show. I can't remember much about it other than I liked watching it and there was airplanes sometimes.

So that's where we're at. But there's this idea of an advocate and the word advocate is very specific. It's not used at times in the New Testament, but it literally means your representative. And it literally has,

the advocate has the connotation of something that you would experience in a courtroom before a judge, which there are accusations being made against someone. And then there was an advocate who was defending the person who's being accused.

So this idea of like a defense lawyer, that Jesus is a defense lawyer and that he is there advocating on you, on your behalf. But here's what's crazy about his advocacy.

He does not defend your innocence.

He defends his righteousness

and that you have access to that righteousness through him.

He never once says, "No, not Billy.

Billy would have never said that."

And it's like, "You say that, Billy?" "What, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, we'll figure it out."

He never once says they didn't do it.

What he does say is that there was a righteous sacrifice that paid for it. And he says, "If you want to see the receipt,

"you don't have to look any further "than the scars that I carry in my hands." And the fact that I'm resurrected right now, because that means that the sacrifice was so righteous and pure, that it went beyond the power of death to create resurrection. And so what he's able to defend is not the fact that you are innocent because Jesus is aware that you will fall short. That is why he came. That's what he said he came for. I didn't come for the righteous, but for the unrighteous. I didn't come for the people who are well. I came for the people who are sick. That is what I am here for. That is my mission. I'm leaving all the 99 to go find the one because there's more rejoicing in heaven when the one is found than when all the 99 who stay. That is the heart of Jesus.

So he doesn't pretend that you're perfect. He knows you're not perfect. What he defends is that he's righteous and that you are righteous because he is righteous. That the payment has already been paid. And so therefore you cannot be accused again. So every time that the accuser, whether that is the enemy of your soul or your very own voice,

every time the accuser comes and says something,

he advocates on your behalf and says, no, no, no, no, no, sorry. It's true what you're saying, but it's already been paid for.

And let me tell you why that's important

because here's the thing. The opposite would be, instead of feeling advocated for and finding righteousness, the opposite would be condemnation, guilt, shame,

and we know that that's not God's heart. In Romans 8, chapter one says, "There's therefore no longer any condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Why? Because you're such a great person? No, but because Jesus, our advocate is righteous. And the problem with condemnation is condemnation and the fear and the guilt, that pushes you away from the presence of God. But advocacy draws you into the presence of God.

When you believe that you have right standing with God, you don't run away from God, you run to God.

You see, when my kids make mistakes, and they never do,

because I'm a really good parent.

But if theoretically they did, they have two choices.

They can hide from me or they can run to me.

This was the same choice that Adam and Eve had in the garden.

They could have ran to God or they hid from God. They chose to hide from God. Why? Because they were ashamed.

Because they felt guilt, because they ran away. I tell my kids all the time, "Listen, I know you're gonna make mistakes.

And I don't even promise that I'm always gonna respond well.

But I can tell you this, when you come to me,

it's always as different than when you hide from me."

And when we have an advocate, it creates the opportunity for us to understand that when we do fall short, I don't have to run from my heavenly Father, because all I have to do is run to Him to experience not new forgiveness, because forgiveness is already granted to you through the work of the Christ. You actually just experience the fact that you are still loved. And you show up and say, "God, I'm here." You see what I just did? Yeah.

Still love you though.

Not because of you,

but because what Jesus did. He was advocating that whole time. Before you could even get here, He was advocating because the accusers say, "Look what He did.

Look what He just said."

And Jesus advocated on your behalf. And before you ever got there, before Jesus, for our heavenly Father,

the case has already been thrown out.

And He says, "We're good.

You couldn't even get here fast enough, but I'm really glad you ran."

Oh, not this again, Satan.

Okay, hold on.

I'm gonna do two things.

Look what the...

Okay, we're back.

Pray, if it does it again, I'm going handheld. And then you guys will ask questions while I'm standing up here flexing the whole time. Okay, it's fine.

He's advocating for you. And here's what's beautiful. Here's what's beautiful. When we draw us back, it says, "When I make a mistake, instead of running from God's path, I go to them." Why? Because that's where my defense is. That's where my shelter is. That's where my healing is. That's where my restoration is. Because guilt and condemnation makes you run away and it isolates you and it puts you alone. And when you're alone, you believe the lies of the enemy. It says that you will never overcome this. You will never get through this. You are no good. And you're definitely not gonna pray when you feel like that.

You're just gonna sit there and wallow in sorrow.

But it gives us boldness. Advocacy gives us boldness. That's why Hebrews chapter four verse 16 says, "Let us then with confidence, with boldness, draw near to the throne of grace. We may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

So here's the thing.

When we have an advocate, we realize, "Hey, this is not what disqualifies me. In fact, I just get back up. I love what it says in Proverbs 24, 16. It says, "For the righteous falls seven times and rises again."

Seven times, not the perfect fall seven times, not the sinner falls seven times, the righteous. And you say, "Well, yeah, but that's the righteous. That's not me." You have to realize you may think that. But in this very moment, if you've accepted Jesus, there's an advocate who's advocating on your behalf that says, "They are righteous because they're in me."

And we're not gonna talk about it today. But Jesus says, "You know who he also calls the advocate?" So Jesus is advocating on your behalf in the throne of grace in heavenly places with God. But then he sent the Holy Spirit to be your advocate on your behalf to dwell inside of you, to remind you and advocate to you that you are righteous. So you're being double advocated for, one before the Father and one in your very own internal self. So the moment that you think, "Well, I fall, but I'm not righteous," in that moment, Jesus is in heavenly places saying, "Yes, he is. Yes, she is." And the very Spirit of God is dwelling inside of you saying, "Yes, you are. Don't believe you're not righteous for one moment."

You are. And yet, did you fall? Yes. And seven times you can get back up. Now that doesn't mean on the eighth time you're done. And that's when it's over.

You can be that kind of person who gets back up. Man, I made a mistake. Man, I was impatient with my kids. Man, I was rude to my spouse. Man, I shouldn't have said that thing to that person, a coworker. Man, I shouldn't have lied. I made that mistake. I had that thought. I did like, we could fill in the blanks.

For your own flavor of missing God's perfection for you.

And yet, seven times can you get back up. Not because you're strong, but because there's an advocate saying, "Get back up. Get back up. It's time to keep going. It's time to keep going."

And here's the second thing.

When you realize you have an advocate and that opens up the thing,

we confess when we fail as opposed to trying to hide and cover up when we fail.

First John chapter, or first John 1.9, right after that verse eight, where it says, "If you think you don't have sin, then you're fooling yourself." It says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful to forgive our sins and to clean us from all unrighteousness." When you realize you have an advocate who's already speaking your righteousness over you, when you fall short, you don't think, "Oh, I got to hide that from God. I got to hide that. I got to keep that separate. I can't say that." No, you run right to him and you say, "I'm coming to you because this is what brings me freedom." Confession does not bring guilt or shame. Confession brings freedom to your heart and to your soul.

And it is the part of the process that allows healing to happen. When you say, "Hey, I'm struggling with this."

And maybe at first it's just with God. And maybe at some point he lends you to and says, "Hey, I want you to confess this to this trusted brother, this trusted sister, that you can have this conversation and have a real world interaction." But that there's this process because confession is not what brings guilt. That's someone who doesn't have an advocate.

If you don't have an advocate and you tell the judge, "Hey, I broke the law," the judge is like, "Busted."

But when you have an advocate, sometimes even when you're guilty, you get off.

My kids have been watching the OJ Simpson trial documentary on Netflix.

It's still too soon to bring up OJ Simpson, I know. He was innocent.

He was innocent. I'm just kidding. You guys were supposed to laugh more about that. Sorry.

My kids still are like, "How did he not go to jail?" I was like, "I don't know, son. If the glove doesn't fit, you must have quit." That's what the advocate said.

He got off. I don't know how it works.

You see, the thing is, because Jesus is not trying to say you're innocent, He's trying to say that crime's already been paid for.

And so confession is not just, yeah, is it an admission of guilt? Sure, but it's an admission of guilt that's already been paid for.

And so then it brings more freedom.

This creates this ability to stop living in shame.

And you know what? This is one of my favorite verses. We used to sing a song. It was really old. I'm not gonna sing it. Some of you remember it because it was based on the Psalm. Psalm 103, verse 12. It says, "As far as the east is from the west,

so far does He take our sin from us."

As far, like, what a, I love,

the older I get, the more I enjoy biblical poetry. And I love the, like, as far, as far as the east is from the west, so far has He taken my sin from me.

That's what happens when you have an advocate.

It's gone.

Have you ever been at the ocean and you're just looking out? And you know, theoretically, except for you flatland people, you know theoretically that if you just keep going, it's gonna come back around?

And it's like, but that's so, it feels so impossible.

And it's like, but as far as the east, it's like they never meet. But as far as it is,

He says, "That's how far your transgression, your sin has been removed from you."

Oh man, okay.

And the last thing is,

some people believe that, oh, I messed up again. God's gonna give up on me. I've heard that time, like, He's done with me.

Like, God's done with me.

When you believe there's a person advocating on their behalf, you'll realize that God's not done with you. If there's still breath in your lungs, God's not done with you. Philippians 1.6 says, "And I'm sure this, that He who began the good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." Like, He's not done, He's working. If you're breathing, He's working.

He's not done.

He's not done. He's advocating on your behalf.

And all of the things, I say all this, because you have an advocate, that can remove the burden of feeling like you are not good enough to pray. And that, or to do any of these things that we've talked about. To say the Lord's Prayer daily. Or to intercede on someone else's behalf. Or petition God for something on your own. Or to even think that you'd have the audacity that if you sat and be still, that God would speak to you. Or that you can enjoy the presence of God because when you are sin conscious and you believe that, then you won't be able to participate in any of those in a meaningful way because you think that all that's waiting for you on the other side is guilt and condemnation. But when you realize that Jesus is saying the exact opposite and that the Spirit is breathing the exact opposite inside of you, then you can go to God in any of those forms of prayer and experience the thing that He longs for the most, which is relationship.

Relationship.

But He goes one step further.

And for me, this is one of the most comforting things.

Because I don't know if you realize this in prayer.

Prayer, we talked about it, it can be hard.

And prayer is one of the things that it never seems like in reality there's enough.

Like if I started with three rememorized prayers, well, maybe I should get to five. And if I spent 10 minutes in prayer, then maybe it should be 20. And if I spent five minutes in silence, maybe it should have been 10. And like I did this, but somebody else did an hour. And like it's this constant thing. And the problem is it's not even that it's wrong. It's just like, I wanna do more. And then some days I've got all the right intentions, but things in life mess up my intentions and my plans and my schedule. And I don't get to do that. Or I'm a mom with young kids. And every time I try to carve out time, somebody wakes up, someone throws up, someone poops and everything's changed.

And I can't pray. You think I can pray for 10 minutes straight? I can't even think for 10 minutes straight.

I try.

And then I just feel like I'm not there. And even though I see the benefit, I don't know if it's actually making anything different.

I wanna read a section of Scripture.

And the Bible nerd in me will have to say, we're not gonna get to read everything in context, which I love to do, but it would just take too long. So we're just gonna have to jump right in the middle of this. But I would encourage you to go read the full section of both these passages. But Hebrews chapter seven says this, verse 22.

This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant.

The former priests were many in number because they were prevented by death from continuing in office.

But he holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever.

Consequently, he is able to save to the other most, those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from centered and exalted above the heavens. He has no need like those high priests to offer sacrifices daily for his own sins. And then for those of the people, since he did this once and for all when he offered up himself. For the law appoints men and their weakness as high priests. But the word of the oath which came later than the law appoints a son who has been made perfect forever.

Here's the thing I want you to know.

Not only is Jesus seated in heavenly places advocating on your behalf.

The Bible says that he is also as your priest, which a priest is a representative between man and God, as your priest.

He is interceding, he is praying for you constantly.

Your name is on his lips every moment of every day.

He is praying for you when you don't know how to pray.

When you are asleep, he does not sleep. He is praying for you. When you are confused, he is not confused. He is praying for you. When you think I'm overwhelmed, I don't even know what I can do. He is not overwhelmed, he is praying for you. And here's the thing that I know. One word from Jesus is greater than my entire lifetime of prayers put together. But he doesn't just give me one word or one prayer or one section of time for all of eternity. He says that you and me are constantly in intercession on his lips to his heavenly father. That your high priest is constantly beseeching God to work on your behalf for you to experience good things. And so as you are growing in prayer and you think, oh man, I did five minutes, not 10 minutes, or 10 minutes. Listen, prayer is important because it will change you and it changes the, everything we've said is true about prayer. But if you believe for one moment, like if I don't do enough, then God's gonna let out. Stop it. Because Jesus is praying on your behalf. It's already happening. That's why in Romans chapter eight it says, "What then shall we say about these things?" Which I wish we could go over these things. We don't have time. It says, "But if God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for all of us. How will he not also with him graciously give all things?

Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? And who's God's elect? You are." Why? Because of advocate Jesus working on your behalf.

It is who God justifies. 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?

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulations or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or the sword or politics or government shutdowns or liberals or Democrats or this or that or foreign entities or the fact that there's a shortage here or that. Will any of that separate us from the love of Christ?

As it is written, for your sake, we are being killed all day long. We are regarded as sheep before the slaughter. Know in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor heights, nor depth, nor anything else in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God.

That is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Give him some praise this morning, church. Give him some praise this morning.

So am I telling you, don't worry about prayer. You don't need to do it. No, no, no, no. That's not what I'm saying. This is like Paul, like saying, oh, well, if sin abounds, we're grace abounds. Should I sin more so I get more grace? No, don't be stupid.

We pray and we've considered to spend that because the prayer is how we commune with the presence of God.

But when the accuser comes to you and say, you're not doing enough, it's not enough, you can do exactly what Jesus does here on behalf. You can actually just go ahead and be fine and say, you know what, it's not enough.

I don't pray enough. I'm not righteous enough. I'm not good enough. But my advocate and my priest say something differently. And my advocate is convicting me of righteousness every day. And my priest is saying effectual prayers of a righteous person every moment and every day on my behalf. So I am not enough, but he is more than enough for me.

And I will accept that today.

So will I pray for my family? Will I pray for finances? Will I pray for healing? Will I pray to hear the voice of God? Will I sit in his presence? Will I repeat the Lord's prayer whenever I feel overwhelmed? Yes, I will do all of those things. But I know that none of them are enough, but Jesus is enough and his prayers are more than enough. And he is praying for me in every moment and every single day. So the moment that I think I just am not getting it, I'm not doing it enough. I'm not doing it enough. I'm not doing it enough. I can't do it good enough. This person's better than me. No one does it as good as Jesus.

No one does it as good as Jesus.

And so do we continue to walk in the grace that God says before us, to continue to commune with God and to pray and have our hearts and our minds transformed by seeing the image of Jesus in our lives? Yeah, we do.

And at the same time, I know and I believe

that though I may fall seven times, I get back up because I'm righteous, because the advocate of my soul says I'm righteous. And so therefore that I can know that he is boldly praying prayers to my father. So when I fall short, I can boldly enter the throne and move grace with whatever I'm dealing with, because that is where my father is, who doesn't need to deal with the punishment for sin because that was done to Jesus. Instead, I just get the joy of being able to cry out, Abba Father, and walking into his presence.

And say, "God, I don't think I prayed enough this week."

And who knows, he may tell you, "You didn't,

"but that's okay.

"Big Brother Jesus, your high priest did."

So you're covered.

How would you live differently if you believed

that your prayer life was to the max right now?

That it couldn't get any better?

How would you live if you thought, "I can't even pray any better?"

That when someone says, "How's your prayer life going?" You say, "It's perfect."

And Jesus, it is.

And if you really believe that,

if you transform your paradigm to only seeing him,

that becomes the reality you get to live in.

And he's making those prayers on your behalf right now. With every bow for just a minute as we close today,

maybe you're here and you never have made that decision to accept Jesus.

Everything I talked about today comes through one truth and one decision, which is accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

It's the buy-in. It's the gate. It's the door. It's the narrow way.

And it's the greatest decision you can make this morning.

And with every head bowed and every eye closed, I'm just gonna invite you to say this prayer if that's you.

I'm gonna invite everyone to pray it. Just repeat after me, say, "Dear Heavenly Father,

thank you for sending Jesus to die on my behalf."

So my sins could be forgiven.

So I could have an advocate.

So I could have him as my priest.

So in Jesus' name we pray.

With every head bowed for just a minute more, if you made a decision to accept Jesus today,

anywhere in the room, would you raise your hand up?

Anywhere in this room.

Any of the hands that are up, they can go down.

Father, we thank you. We celebrate you to you when people come to make a decision to believe in Christ.

What a glorious day.

Lord, for ones who made that decision today for the first time and ones who are again and again recommitting in their hearts to be defined by you,

Lord, I thank you that you continue to move in our place.

Jesus, we invite you again.

Teach us how to pray.

Knowing we'll never be as good as you.

But you are who we wanna learn from.

It's your holy name we pray. Amen and amen.

All right, church, we love you very much. Next week's gonna be awesome. When you come next week, just so there's no surprises, it's gonna be really Christmasy in that lobby. So just get yourself ready. Get all your holly jolly ready. It's gonna be awesome. We love you. Have a great rest of your day. We will see you next Sunday or Wednesday. Prayer class, sign up. It's gonna be awesome.

(Upbeat Music)

I feel the rush, the wake of the fake love Burying with fear, shining like the sun So like the dawn of all my dreams raging inside Your passion rising No, I'm never gonna ever gonna hide myself from you

No, I'm never gonna ever gonna find love, it's true

No, I'm never gonna ever gonna hide myself from you