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DWDP-Gen:18 16-33 The First Intercessory Prayer · More Than Medicine

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  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to More Than Medicine, where Jesus is more than enough for the ills that plague our culture and our country.
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  SPEAKER_00: Hosted by author and physician, Dr.
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  SPEAKER_00: Robert Jackson.
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  SPEAKER_01: Papa, can you tell me a story?
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  SPEAKER_01: Do you really want me to tell you a story?
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  SPEAKER_01: Well, you go get your brother and your sisters, and I will tell you a story.
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  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Devotions with Dr.
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  SPEAKER_01: Papa.
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  SPEAKER_01: Gather around, grab your Bibles, and let us look into the written word which reveals to us the living word who is our Lord Jesus Christ.
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  SPEAKER_01: Today we're in Genesis chapter 18, and now we are up to verses sixteen through thirty three.
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  SPEAKER_01: Let me start by reading verse sixteen.
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  SPEAKER_01: Then the men rose up from there and looked down towards Sodom, and Abraham was walking with them to send them off.
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  SPEAKER_01: The Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?
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  SPEAKER_01: Since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed.
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  SPEAKER_01: I stop there and we'll come back to reading in a moment.
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  SPEAKER_01: So you see these three men are heading toward Sodom.
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  SPEAKER_01: They're leaving Abraham's community, heading toward Sodom.
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  SPEAKER_01: Abraham walks with them to send them off.
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  SPEAKER_01: These men obviously had another mission to perform.
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  SPEAKER_01: And as if talking to himself, God asked, perhaps out loud shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?
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  SPEAKER_01: For you see, the sin of Sodom and the other cities has particularly what was particularly grievous.
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  SPEAKER_01: God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to a knowledge of the truth.
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  SPEAKER_01: But, dear listener, God's patience does run out.
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  SPEAKER_01: The time of judgment for these cities was near.
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  SPEAKER_01: Their sin was especially grievous in that they had personally seen the power of God when God had used Abraham to miraculously rescue them from the five Northeastern kings approximately twenty five years prior.
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  SPEAKER_01: Then, believe it or not, they met Melchizedek, the high priest, personally, who was a preincarnate visitation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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  SPEAKER_01: Then for many years they had a missionary living in their midst named Lot, who the scripture says was vexed in his righteous soul by their unlawful deeds.
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  SPEAKER_01: The inhabitants of these cities spurned the light given to them and fell into grosser wickedness than before.
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  SPEAKER_01: As Romans chapter one and verse twenty four tells us, therefore God gave them over in the lust of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.
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  SPEAKER_01: Then in verse twenty six the scripture says, For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions.
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  SPEAKER_01: We must understand that there are consequences for rejecting the truth of God.
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  SPEAKER_01: These cities of the plains were about to comprehend those consequences, and God would not hide it from his friend Abraham.
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  SPEAKER_01: Then in verse eighteen and nineteen, God tells us exactly why he would not hide it from Abraham.
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  SPEAKER_01: He says, Surely there are well back up a minute.
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  SPEAKER_01: In my thinking, there are lots or plenty of inscrutable acts of the sovereign Lord that Abraham would not be privy to, even though he is called the friend of God.
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  SPEAKER_01: But why would God not hide this thing from Abraham?
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  SPEAKER_01: Well, it's because of the covenant, the contract that God had made with Abraham.
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  SPEAKER_01: God has promised to make of Abraham a great and mighty nation, and through his offspring and ultimately the Lord Jesus Christ, the whole earth will be blessed.
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  SPEAKER_01: Furthermore, Abraham has been chosen, and he is trusted, trusted by God to pass along to his child Isaac and to succeeding generations, the quote way of the Lord.
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  SPEAKER_01: You see that phrase?
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  SPEAKER_01: The way of the Lord, which included doing righteousness and justice.
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  SPEAKER_01: The implication is that God knew Abraham, who is called the friend of God, could be trusted to convey God's truth and the terms of the covenant to future generations.
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  SPEAKER_01: Now listen to me.
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  SPEAKER_01: This begs the question.
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  SPEAKER_01: Can you and I be trusted to do the same?
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  SPEAKER_01: Can we?
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  SPEAKER_01: You and I have children and grandchildren who need to know the Lord and the way of the Lord.
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  SPEAKER_01: It is our responsibility to ensure that they know and understand the truth of God's word.
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  SPEAKER_01: Now, pay attention to this passage of in Psalms that is my constant prayer.
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  SPEAKER_01: This is my prayer for my own self.
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  SPEAKER_01: It's Psalms 71, verse 17 and 18.
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  SPEAKER_01: O God, you have taught me from my youth, and that's and that's so true for me and perhaps for many of you.
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  SPEAKER_01: You have taught me from my youth, and I still declare your wondrous deeds.
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  SPEAKER_01: And even when I am old and gray, O God, do not forsake me until I declare your strength to this generation, your power to all who are to come.
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  SPEAKER_01: Now, brothers and sisters, that's a constant prayer of mine, that God will not let me lose his presence or his blessing on my life when I'm old and gray, until I declare his strength to this generation, my children, and the generations to come, my grandchildren, his power to all who is who are to come.
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  SPEAKER_01: And I and I hope that you could pick up on that passage, Psalm 71, verse 17 and 18, and begin to pray that for your own self, that the God who has blessed you and me with the knowledge of the way of the Lord, that we would continually seek to pass that knowledge of the truth of God to our children and our grandchildren and to all who are to come.
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  SPEAKER_01: Now, in verse twenty and twenty one, let me read that to you.
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  SPEAKER_01: And the Lord said, The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave.
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  SPEAKER_01: I will go down now and see if they have done entirely according to its outcry, which has come to me, and if not, I will know.
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  SPEAKER_01: Now let me ask you a question.
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  SPEAKER_01: Did God really have to go down there to see for himself?
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  SPEAKER_01: Well I would suggest to you that probably not, because God is, say it with me, omniscient.
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  SPEAKER_01: He knows everything.
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  SPEAKER_01: He sees everything.
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  SPEAKER_01: Nothing is hidden from his eyes.
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  SPEAKER_01: Listen to Psalms one hundred thirty nine, one of my favorite passages, verses one through six.
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  SPEAKER_01: O Lord, you have searched me and known me.
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  SPEAKER_01: You know when I sit down and when I rise up, you understand my thoughts from afar, you scrutinize my path and my lying down, and are intimately acquainted with all my ways.
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  SPEAKER_01: Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it all.
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  SPEAKER_01: You have enclosed me behind and before and laid your hand upon me.
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  SPEAKER_01: Such knowledge is too wonderful for me.
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  SPEAKER_01: It is too high.
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  SPEAKER_01: I cannot attain to it.
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  SPEAKER_01: You understand, brothers and sisters, there's nothing that God does not know.
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  SPEAKER_01: He didn't need to go down to Sodom and Gomorrah to see.
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  SPEAKER_01: He already knew.
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  SPEAKER_01: Now, he didn't need to go there.
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  SPEAKER_01: This was for appearance's sake only.
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  SPEAKER_01: So that Abraham and other men, and you and me as we read this passage thousands of years later, would know that God had seen the full situation before he acted in judgment.
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  SPEAKER_01: Now verse 22 and 23.
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  SPEAKER_01: Then the men turned away from there and went towards Sodom while Abraham was still standing before the Lord.
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  SPEAKER_01: Catch that phrase standing before the Lord.
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  SPEAKER_01: Well, then Abraham came near and said, Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?
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  SPEAKER_01: Good question.
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  SPEAKER_01: So these men, these two angels, head towards Sodom.
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  SPEAKER_01: Abraham is left standing before the Lord in verse twenty three.
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  SPEAKER_01: He begins to negotiate.
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  SPEAKER_01: No no no no.
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  SPEAKER_01: The proper term is intercede.
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  SPEAKER_01: Abraham begins to intercede for the cities in the plain.
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  SPEAKER_01: Why?
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  SPEAKER_01: Well, perhaps he had business acquaintances, perhaps he had friends, but he definitely had family, because Lot, his wife and children were there.
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  SPEAKER_01: So then in verse twenty four and twenty five, Abram says, Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city.
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  SPEAKER_01: Will you indeed sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous who are in it?
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  SPEAKER_01: Far be it from you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike.
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  SPEAKER_01: Far be it from you.
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  SPEAKER_01: Shall not the judge of all the earth deal justly?
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  SPEAKER_01: Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?
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  SPEAKER_01: Oh this is an amazing passage.
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  SPEAKER_01: First, Abraham appeals to God's justice.
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  SPEAKER_01: God has never said what he intends to do.
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  SPEAKER_01: He didn't say he was going there to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.
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  SPEAKER_01: He just said he was going down to look.
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  SPEAKER_01: Yet Abraham knows the reputation of Sodom and Gomorrah.
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  SPEAKER_01: He also knows God's justice.
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  SPEAKER_01: He knows God's mercy and loving kindness from the story of Noah and the preservation of his family.
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  SPEAKER_01: He also knows God's vengeance, as he personally saw God deal with the five Northeastern kings who had kidnapped Lot and his family.
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  SPEAKER_01: He was immediately fearful for Sodom and Gomorrah and Lot and his family who lived there.
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  SPEAKER_01: So he says to God, Far be it from you to destroy the righteous with the wicked.
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  SPEAKER_01: Will not the judge of all the earth do right?
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  SPEAKER_01: Now that's a rhetorical question, because both he and God knew the answer to that question.
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  SPEAKER_01: But do you and I?
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  SPEAKER_01: Do we know the answer to that question?
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  SPEAKER_01: Will not the judge of all the earth do right?
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  SPEAKER_01: For you see, I constantly hear accusations that God is not fair in my medical practice.
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  SPEAKER_01: Why did God let my little baby die, doctor Jackson?
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  SPEAKER_01: Why did God let my husband leave me and my three children?
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  SPEAKER_01: What about the innocent tribesman in New Guinea who never hears Jesus' name?
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  SPEAKER_01: So let me ask you, is God responsible for the sin of Adam and Eve that brought disease, death, and family division into the world that causes little babies to die young and families to fragment?
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  SPEAKER_01: No.
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  SPEAKER_01: That is the consequence of human depravity.
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  SPEAKER_01: And trust me, there is no such thing as an innocent tribesman in any part of the world.
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  SPEAKER_01: They are all liars, cheats, and adulterers.
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  SPEAKER_01: Trust me, I've been there.
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  SPEAKER_01: I've seen them up close.
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  SPEAKER_01: Pagan cultures are idol worshiping carnal cultures.
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  SPEAKER_01: God will always remain faithful and true, and all men apart from God are spiritually dead, spiritually blind, and in bondage to sin.
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  SPEAKER_01: Now catch verse twenty six.
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  SPEAKER_01: So the Lord said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare the whole place on their account.
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  SPEAKER_01: And Abraham replied, Now behold, I have ventured to speak to the Lord, although I am but dust and ashes.
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  SPEAKER_01: Suppose the fifty righteous are lacking five, will you destroy the whole city because of five?
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  SPEAKER_01: And he said, I will not destroy it if I find forty five there.
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  SPEAKER_01: And so Abraham continues to intercede very respectfully and very specifically until he gets down to ten.
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  SPEAKER_01: Now we notice in Abraham's intercessory prayer that he is respectful, he is persistent and specific in his request to God.
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  SPEAKER_01: So should we be in our intercession for our lost or sick family or friends or neighbors?
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  SPEAKER_01: I've so often heard people praying that we're demanding of God, not as this passage says that Abraham said, Although I am but dust and ashes, brothers and sisters, when we pray to God, we should remember that He has the power to take away our breath at any moment.
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  SPEAKER_01: We should always be respectful of God.
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  SPEAKER_01: And then he was persistent.
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  SPEAKER_01: Remember in the New Testament that Jesus is the one who challenged us to be persistent in our praying.
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  SPEAKER_01: He told us the story of the unrighteous judge who did not fear God nor man, yet because the widow woman came to him persistently, he gave her what she requested lest she wear him down.
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  SPEAKER_01: But then at the end of that parable, Jesus said, When the Son of Man returns, will he find faith on the earth?
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  SPEAKER_01: What does he mean by that?
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  SPEAKER_01: Listen, persistence demonstrates faith.
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  SPEAKER_01: You and I will not go back repeatedly to a God who does not or cannot answer prayer.
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  SPEAKER_01: Persistence demonstrates your obvious faith in God.
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  SPEAKER_01: And when Jesus returns, will he find you and me persistently praying for the lost, for the missionaries, for our government officials, for our lost family and friends?
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  SPEAKER_01: And then he prayed specifically interceding all the way down to just ten people.
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  SPEAKER_01: I remember many years ago hearing Charles Stanley preaching on setting goals, and he said hazy goals makes for hazy living.
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  SPEAKER_01: And then he said hazy praying makes for hazy answers.
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  SPEAKER_01: And what he was trying to teach us was that we had to set specific goals for our lives, and that we needed to pray specifically when we interceded for family and friends.
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  SPEAKER_01: When you pray for the missionaries, pray for them by name.
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  SPEAKER_01: Don't just say God bless all the missionaries.
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  SPEAKER_01: Pray for them specifically.
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  SPEAKER_01: Pray specifically for their financial needs.
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  SPEAKER_01: Pray specifically for the pastors and churches with whom they work.
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  SPEAKER_01: Pray specifically for their children, for God to protect them from the enemy, and for him to multiply their ministries.
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  SPEAKER_01: Pray specifically.
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  SPEAKER_01: We should be praying in the same way that Abraham prayed respectfully, persistently, and specifically in his intercessory prayer.
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  SPEAKER_01: It encourages me to note that for only ten righteous men, God would spare the city.
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  SPEAKER_01: I sometimes fret over our larger cities in America that are so filled with violence and corruption, like Sodom and Gomorrah.
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  SPEAKER_01: Yet in every major city there are small Christian ministries and small churches that labor faithfully to bring Jesus and the Word of God to those cities.
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  SPEAKER_01: They are lights in the midst of darkness.
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  SPEAKER_01: Just like the five cities in the plain didn't the fi I'm sorry, just like the fire didn't fall on Sodom and Gomorrah until Lot and his family departed, I don't think God's full judgment will fully fall on America until the rapture snatches away all Christian influence, until every little light in the darkness is taken away.
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  SPEAKER_01: Then total darkness will descend and the wild dogs will turn on each other, biting and devouring one another as in the days before the flood when the earth was filled with violence and corruption.
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  SPEAKER_01: Abraham knew there were ten in Lot's family, but what he didn't know was that only four were not corrupted.
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  SPEAKER_01: Next week we learn about Lot and we learn about the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah.
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  SPEAKER_01: You're listening to Devotions with Dr.
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  SPEAKER_01: Papa.
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  SPEAKER_01: If you like what you hear, I pray you would follow, like, share, tell your family and friends, and we'll be back again next week.
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  SPEAKER_01: Until then, remember that Jesus loves you and your doctor loves you.
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  SPEAKER_01: Until next week, I pray that the Lord will bless you real good.
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  SPEAKER_02: For more information about the Jackson Family Ministry or to schedule a speaking engagement, go to their Facebook page, Instagram, or web page at Jackson Family Ministry dot com.
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  SPEAKER_02: Don't forget to check out Doctor.