A Prayer for Those Stuck in Sin
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - We get so many questions from listeners
00:00:06.920 | who want to escape sinful addictions to lust and pornography.
00:00:11.060 | We have so many listeners who want to be done
00:00:12.600 | with the sin of anger,
00:00:14.680 | and many listeners want to know the key
00:00:16.760 | to personal holiness.
00:00:18.040 | Pastor John, at the end of the day,
00:00:19.360 | we depend on God for all of this freedom.
00:00:21.920 | I mean, God must free us.
00:00:24.120 | So Pastor John, in this episode,
00:00:25.280 | would you lead us in prayer before God right now
00:00:28.620 | on behalf of all of us,
00:00:30.040 | that everyone listening will have hearts
00:00:32.760 | filled with satisfaction in God
00:00:34.640 | that is more powerful than the lure of the sins in our life?
00:00:38.840 | - I would love to, Tony, but let me, before I pray,
00:00:43.160 | let me just say a word to orient the listeners,
00:00:47.280 | because I feel like they need a moment right here
00:00:48.960 | just to prepare themselves for this,
00:00:50.520 | because if they're gonna listen and say amen,
00:00:53.320 | they need to have a heart of a sense of expectation,
00:00:56.280 | so they're not just listening to me pray like,
00:00:58.700 | oh, here's another podcast and piece of information,
00:01:01.500 | what will he say, but really pray with me.
00:01:04.520 | And I'm thinking of people here now,
00:01:07.500 | this is what I understand you mean,
00:01:09.180 | who are stuck in a same pattern of sin
00:01:13.420 | over and over with little movement.
00:01:16.020 | I remember one man's testimony of praying for freedom
00:01:20.260 | from pornography for years,
00:01:22.260 | and then it came, and stunningly,
00:01:24.700 | he said, why would God answer the thousandth prayer
00:01:29.200 | and not the second one, or the 802nd one?
00:01:33.660 | And he didn't know the answer.
00:01:35.780 | And I don't know the answer fully either,
00:01:38.620 | except to say, perhaps the bowl of prayer
00:01:42.540 | in the presence of God was not full yet,
00:01:46.420 | and therefore the outpouring that he intended
00:01:49.600 | by all those accumulated prayers was not yet complete.
00:01:53.860 | There are mysteries in this, and in other words,
00:01:55.820 | this prayer that I'm about to pray
00:01:58.260 | might be the 1000th prayer that fills the bowl.
00:02:03.260 | Nothing unique about the prayer,
00:02:04.820 | just happens to be the last one in the bowl.
00:02:07.940 | And then God pours it out on the people that are listening,
00:02:11.920 | that would be my heart's desire.
00:02:14.300 | But I want people to have hope and belief
00:02:17.940 | that this prayer and their prayers have not been in vain.
00:02:21.340 | None of them have been in vain,
00:02:22.860 | 'cause this kind of intransigent sin
00:02:26.100 | makes us feel like God's not listening,
00:02:28.420 | prayer is invalid, maybe the whole thing is not real.
00:02:31.100 | Those are the horrible temptations
00:02:32.820 | that come with sin not going away.
00:02:36.660 | God answers prayers in two sorts of ways.
00:02:40.100 | One with dramatic overnight deliverances,
00:02:43.580 | and he answers prayers by putting in place
00:02:45.740 | series of events and influences
00:02:48.380 | which culminate into change, slowly or suddenly.
00:02:50.500 | In fact, as I read the Bible,
00:02:52.540 | that process of sanctification is normal,
00:02:56.340 | else I don't see why Paul would write
00:02:57.780 | the second half of his letters
00:02:59.620 | if he could just pray and they could pray,
00:03:01.860 | boom, overnight, now we solve all these
00:03:03.820 | sanctification problems in our churches.
00:03:06.100 | So let's pray.
00:03:08.060 | Father, you have heard our heart's desire for this prayer,
00:03:13.380 | and I wanna begin by praising you
00:03:15.420 | as a perfectly holy, transcendently pure,
00:03:22.140 | high, lifted up, above all temptation,
00:03:25.940 | and all sin, and all limitations,
00:03:27.780 | kind of God that you are.
00:03:30.420 | I praise you as an infinite God of knowledge,
00:03:33.500 | and infinite in power, and infinite in goodness.
00:03:37.380 | We don't come to you because you need us.
00:03:39.780 | You don't need us.
00:03:41.700 | You are not served by human hands
00:03:43.940 | as though you needed anything,
00:03:45.820 | but you give life and breath and everything,
00:03:47.660 | including this prayer, right now.
00:03:50.260 | You are the fountain, and we're thirsty.
00:03:52.940 | You're the bread, and we're hungry.
00:03:55.600 | You're the wisdom, and we're the foolish ones.
00:03:58.720 | You are strong, and we are weak and needy.
00:04:03.320 | You are righteous, we are guilty,
00:04:05.100 | and you are the treasure we long for,
00:04:07.500 | and we are bankrupt and poor.
00:04:09.820 | That's the way we come.
00:04:11.820 | We take refuge in your grace,
00:04:15.300 | in your righteousness, in your son.
00:04:17.140 | We don't ask anything because of our merit.
00:04:20.540 | Nobody listening to this, I hope,
00:04:22.740 | God, don't let them ask anything
00:04:25.460 | because of their merit or their performance.
00:04:28.140 | It's not because we are worthy of answers,
00:04:31.020 | but because Christ is worthy of answers,
00:04:33.680 | and we are in Christ.
00:04:34.920 | That's what we mean.
00:04:36.100 | That's what we mean, Father,
00:04:37.500 | when we say we're coming in his name.
00:04:39.900 | So for his sake, because of his blood,
00:04:42.020 | because of his righteousness, Father,
00:04:44.580 | and for his glory, we're asking now, deliver us.
00:04:49.260 | Oh, Lord, from our bondage
00:04:51.860 | to the besetting sins of our lives.
00:04:55.840 | Look upon the chains that have held us so long.
00:05:00.780 | Have mercy on us, not because we're guiltless,
00:05:04.360 | but because Christ died so that we might walk
00:05:07.420 | in the power of the Spirit.
00:05:08.820 | He bought the new covenant, promises for us.
00:05:12.180 | It grieves us, oh God, that we are so slow
00:05:15.780 | to live in the freedom that he purchased,
00:05:18.260 | to be the people you've created us to be,
00:05:21.340 | and we are sorry, and we confess
00:05:23.700 | that we have grieved your Spirit
00:05:25.660 | by the slowness of our hearts.
00:05:27.940 | Open the eyes of our hearts to see
00:05:32.060 | and to savor at new and powerful levels
00:05:37.060 | the beauty of holiness and purity
00:05:39.180 | and patience and meekness and forbearance,
00:05:42.060 | the beauty of Christ.
00:05:43.660 | Break our addiction to worldly pleasures
00:05:48.180 | and sinful responses to people like wives
00:05:51.780 | or husbands or children who frustrate us.
00:05:55.260 | Break our worldly responses of anger or of lust or of greed.
00:06:00.260 | We're tired of being jerked around
00:06:03.340 | by the impulses of lust and anger and covetousness.
00:06:08.060 | We want to be free by the power
00:06:10.900 | of a new expulsive satisfaction in you.
00:06:15.660 | Oh, sweeten, sweeten our souls with grace.
00:06:20.540 | Make us quick to hear, slow to speak,
00:06:23.140 | slow to anger, ready to forgive as we've been forgiven
00:06:27.520 | and eager to make peace by being wronged if necessary.
00:06:31.700 | Help us not to have to have the last word
00:06:34.820 | in any kind of dispute.
00:06:36.540 | Give us, oh God, the fruit of self-control.
00:06:40.100 | You said it's the fruit of the spirit.
00:06:42.100 | Give us the fruit of self-denial
00:06:45.420 | where our appetites for food and sex control us.
00:06:48.220 | Don't let them control us anymore.
00:06:50.780 | We hate being enslaved by anything or anyone but Christ.
00:06:56.640 | Deliver us for your name's sake.
00:06:59.260 | Save us for your name's sake.
00:07:01.660 | Fill us with all-conquering joy
00:07:06.220 | for your name's sake, I pray in Jesus' name, amen.
00:07:10.480 | - Amen, thank you, Pastor John.
00:07:14.080 | And speaking of sin, what about those who are in our lives
00:07:18.440 | who are living in sin, they don't repent from it,
00:07:21.780 | and maybe they've been placed
00:07:23.060 | under church discipline as a result?
00:07:25.800 | We're not to associate with unrepentant sinners
00:07:28.500 | in the church, but here's the kicker.
00:07:30.420 | What if we're related to them?
00:07:32.140 | That's the question from a podcast listener tomorrow.
00:07:35.220 | I'm your host, Tony Rank.
00:07:36.100 | Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast.
00:07:38.900 | (silence)
00:07:41.060 | (silence)
00:07:43.220 | (silence)
00:07:45.380 | [BLANK_AUDIO]