This morning we finish up our Ten Minute Transformation series. I want to encourage you to follow up on the series in two ways. First, consider purchasing a copy of the book which inspired the series. It’s called “Ten Minute Transformation.” It will be available in just a few weeks. You can preorder it online for 20% off. In addition, we’ll have copies for sale in The Commons in just a few weeks.
Second, consider participating in a TMT group. These are small groups of 3-6 people who will commit to two things. First they will commit to following the 40 day journey outlined in the book Ten Minute Transformation. They will do this by reading and putting into practice one chapter of that book each day for 40 days. These chapters lead group members to experience 12 spiritual practices which take ten minutes or less. Each spiritual practice empowers group members to live out one part of the Sermon on the Mount and experience transformation in their walk with God, relationships with others and use of their possessions.
Second, members of a TMT group will commit to huddling for ten minutes by phone, once a week, during those 40 days. In these ten-minute conference call huddles, group members will share they are doing in the 40 day journey and prepare for the readings and practices for next week. More information is in the Link.
You’ll definitely want to return next Sunday and bring a friend with you. My good friend Harold Shank and his wife Sally will be with us. Harold is the President of Ohio Valley University. He’s hosting an informative dinner about his ministry at OVU on Monday night at 7 PM on the 23rd. And he’ll be preaching at Highland in all three services next Sunday the 22nd. Harold preached for Highland for twenty years and planted a church on Highland’s behalf for 10 years.
Harold has been one of those people who have inspired me. From his preaching to his to his spiritual life to the way he’s such a good father and husband, Harold has long been an inspiration to me.
What about you? Who inspires you? Is there someone you look at and think, “I want to be more like that?”
In general, those who inspire us tend to fall into two categories. We are inspired by vertical people and we are inspired by horizontal people. Vertical people are the people who inspire us upward. They are so devout and heavenly-minded that we look at them and say, “I wish I could love God like that!” I think of my friends like Randy, Earl, Gary and Jackie who spend long seasons in prayer and are able to sense God’s presence and guidance in every moment. Some of you may think of spiritual giants like Billy Graham, Beth Moore, or Priscilla Shirer. There are vertical people who inspire us to go deeper with God.
But there are also horizontal people who inspire us. If vertical people inspire us upward, horizontal people inspire us outward. They are so compassionate and earthly-minded that we look at them and say, “I wish I could love people like that.” I think of Harold Shank who cared so deeply for the poor in Memphis he helped start 6 urban churches in Memphis and helped launch Families in Transition, a ministry to homeless and pregnant women. Some of you may think of people like Shane Claiborne, Martin Luther King, Jr., or Mother Theresa. There are horizontal people who inspire us to care more deeply for those around us.
Let’s just take a quick poll. Raise your hand if the first inspiring person that comes to your mind is someone who inspires you vertically? Horizontally?
Jesus said these two types of people exemplified the core of Christianity (Matt. 22). Loving God-vertical. Loving neighbor-horizontal. We’re inspired by people who manage to live out one or both of those commands at their highest levels.
And sometimes we feel the gap between where we are and where they are.
I had lunch a few weeks ago with a long-time friend. “I want to go deeper with God,” he said. “It’s time for me to take the next step.” Perhaps like him, sometimes you feel that vertical hunger. You wish you could take another step in loving God like some of the most devout people you know.
I met recently with another long-time friend. “I just feel useless,” she said. “I wish I could make a difference in the lives of other people.” Perhaps like her, sometimes you feel that horizontal hunger. You wish you could take another step in loving people like some of the most compassionate people you know.
I want us to focus this morning on that horizontal hunger. Is there someone you look at and say, “I wish I could love peoples like that?” A parent who loves her kids like you’d like to love yours. A spouse who loves his wife like you’d like to love yours. A neighbor who loves his neighbors like you’d like to love yours. A student who loves her classmates like you’d like to love yours. But no matter how much you want it, you struggle to love people in that way.
This horizontal part of our lives is the focus of Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount-especially in chapter 5. Jesus raises the bar high when it comes to the horizontal. Jesus reaches the apex when he preaches this: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…’” (Matt. 5:43-44). We looked briefly at this text last Sunday. Apparently some had come along and modified the Old Testament call to love neighbor. ”Neighbor,” they said,”doesn’t mean those nasty, no-good people that we all love to hate. Neighbor means people like you. People you’ve got reason to love. Those other people? It’s OK to hate them.”
That’s a pretty nice theology isn’t it? That horizontal part of our lives only has to extend to people who are easy to love. People who love us back. People who never critique us. People who never hurt our feelings. People who always say just the right thing to us.
Jesus, however, believed we were destined for more. He believed humanity was made for something better. He believed we were designed for a horizontal love that blew right past those limits.
So Jesus said, “But I say to you, Love your enemies…” Not just love the poorest of the poor. Not just love the hurting and helpless. Not just love the coworker or classmate who reciprocates your love. Jesus envisioned a community of people so committed to courageous love that they were willing even to show love to those most undeserving of love.
But the question is this: How do you get there from here? How do I not only get to the point that I’m consistent and generous with the love I demonstrate to my family and friends, but also to the point that I’m unreasonably loving to those who deserve nothing but wrath and revenge? How do we grow in our ability to love others-especially the unlovable?
Jesus points to one of the secrets: “But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…” (Matt. 5:44) Notice how Jesus ties these two things together: love of others and prayer for others. Another word for prayer for others is intercessory prayer. Jesus believed that intercessory prayer was inextricably linked to loving people. If you wanted to love people who were hard to love, you also had to practice praying for people who were hard to love.
Jesus modeled this. One of his most powerful prayers was an intercessory prayer for the unlovable. As Jesus was being hit and hurt by hateful people, he prayed this: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” (Lk. 23:34). Jesus prayed for his enemies. The more we learn to intercede for hateful people, the more our heart grows in love for them. Jesus, of course, already had a heart filled with love. This love overflowed into a remarkable intercessory prayer, “Father, forgive them.” But the reverse is also true. As we pray intercessory prayers for others, our hearts fill with love for them.
Perhaps that’s why Jesus practiced and modeled intercessory prayer in his final hours with his disciples. According to John, Jesus showed the full extent of his love to his disciples in Jn. 13-17. How did Jesus do this? He washed their feet-that’s what happens in John 13. He promised them the Spirit-that’s what Jesus does in John 14-16. And he prayed the longest intercessory prayer in Scripture-that’s what Jesus does in John 17. And as a heading to these three activities, John says in John 13:1 that Jesus was loving these disciples to the end. One of the ways in which Jesus loved his disciples to the end was to pray for them in John 17-it’s longest intercessory prayer in the Bible.
And this practice of intercessory prayer is something Jesus continues to do. In his book entitled Prayer, Philip Yancey writes, “As Jesus once prayed for Peter, now he prays for us… In fact, the New Testament’s only glimpse of what Jesus is doing right now depicts him at the right hand of God ‘interceding for us.’ In three years of active ministry, Jesus changed the moral landscape of the planet. For nearly two thousand years since, he has been using another tactic: prayer. (Philip Yancey, Prayer (Zondervan, 2006), 88). In other words, for about three years Jesus engaged in a powerful ministry of teaching and service and prayer. But for nearly two thousand years Jesus has been engaged in the ministry of intercessory prayer. He’s been at the right hand of God interceding for us. For thousands of years Jesus has been at the Father’s side praying for us.
Jesus practiced and modeled intercessory prayer. Intercessory prayer is how we both express love for others and experience deeper love for others. In fact, we grow in our love for others as we grow in our prayer for others. The one way to get to the point where you can love even your enemies is to pray for your enemies. If you practice intercessory prayer for people who are hard to love, you will eventually begin to love them.
Passion for people can be sparked and fueled by prayer for people. It’s a basic principle: the more frequently we pray for someone with our lips the more likely we’ll be to love them with our lives. Intercessory prayer is one of the primary ways to prioritize and prize the people in our life. If you are searching for the supreme way to serve someone, put your knees on the floor and their name on your lips.
As we move away from just praying for ourselves (petition) to also praying for others (intercession), we are, in the words of Richard Foster, “shifting our center of gravity from our own needs to the needs and concerns of others.” (Richard Foster, Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home (Harper, 1992), 191). If you want to actually shift the center of gravity in your heart so that it’s no longer just focused on you and your needs, then start practicing intercessory prayer.
Douglas Steere writes that “Intercession is the most intensely social act that the human being is capable of.” (Thompson, 37.) Think about all the social acts we are capable of. These would include proving food and clothing, providing medicine, giving encouragement. But this author suggests that there is one practice that is even more powerful in its impact on others than those social acts. Intercessory prayer.
Intercession is one of the greatest forms of love. Praying even for the ordinary people in our lives increases our love for them. We grow in love for others as we grow in prayer for others.
And this is especially true when it comes to those who are hard to love. That is why, I believe, Jesus tied these two together. You want to love so much that you can even love your enemies? Then pray for your enemies.
Detrick Bonhoeffer knew this. He suffered at the hands of Nazis and at the hands of those who called themselves Christians. Though had more reasons than most to hate, he called for intercessory prayer as a way of enlarging our hearts. “A Christian community either lives by the intercessory prayers of its members for one another, or the community will be destroyed. I can no longer condemn or hate other Christians for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble they cause me. In intercessory prayer the face that may have been strange and intolerable to me is transformed into the face of one for whom Christ died, the face of a pardoned sinner. That is a blessed discovery for the Christian who is beginning to offer intercessory prayer for others. As far as we are concerned, there is no dislike, no personal tension, no disunity or strife that cannot be overcome by intercessory prayer. Intercessory prayer is the purifying bath into which the individual and the community must enter every day.” (Bonhoeffer, Life Together, 90) If you want to learn to love like that, then learn to pray like that.
I’m going to close by sharing some simple ways to begin a life of intercession. In this series Eric and I have tried to provide some brief spiritual practices that make a big difference-practices that can be done in ten minutes or less. We’ve talked about the examen, gratitude and lectio divina. We finish with intercessory prayer. Here are three ways to practice intercessory prayer.
First, create a list. It’s simple, but it’s not something everyone does. Create a list of people or groups of people you want to intercede for. I have a list of people I intercede for every day. It includes my family members and a few others. But I also have a list that’s divided into days of the week. There are some people I pray for on Mondays, like our staff and elders. Others I pray for on Tuesdays. Still others I pray for on Wednesdays, and so on. Keep these lists handy so you can add to them as you learn of prayer needs in the lives of others. Create a list or lists of people and needs and begin to pray through them regularly.
Second, practice listening. Listen to conversations. Listen to what people tell you. Listen to what people talk about. And then pray for those people based on what you’ve heard. In addition, listen to God. One of the things I’ve started doing is looking at someone on my intercessory prayer list and just sitting in silence, asking God to help me know what I should pray for that person. I’ve found that my intercession often becomes deeper that way. Rather than just praying about that person’s health, for example, I might be moved to also pray for their stress level, their attitude, and so on. Listen to people and to God and then intercede based on what you’ve heard.
Third, practice flash prayers. A flash prayer is a brief and silent prayer you pray for each person you encounter during the day. Sometimes I’ll pray for the driver next to me at a stop light. Sometimes I’ll pray for a person I just finished talking on the phone with. These are brief prayers. They don’t go on any list. But they are opportunities to intercede.
