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Collierville First Baptist Church
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(Gentle Music)
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When you face a tough challenge,
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do you pray as a first response
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or as a last resort after you've exhausted every other avenue?
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Good question, isn't it? In James chapter four, verse two,
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the Bible says you lust and do not have
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so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain, so you fight in quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask.
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Could it be that you are missing a blessing
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that God wants you to have?
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Could it be that you're missing a special provision for your life that God wants you to have?
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Could it be, could it be that you're missing a victory
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that the Lord wants to bring into your life
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and you don't have these things because you don't pray.
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You don't pray. Unfortunately, for many Christian prayer has become a dull, lifeless routine.
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I remember when I was a little boy at Saltylobaptist Church, we would get our offering envelopes and there was all these little boxes that you checked, read your Bible, prayed, gave an offering. And I remember going down through there and checking the boxes that applied to me. I'm afraid that's what many believers have done today.
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It's a routine and you just check the box. I'm going to church today.
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I'm reading my Bible.
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I'm giving an offering.
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I'm praying.
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But there's no life to it.
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There's no zest to it. There's no purpose and meaning to it. Dr. Jerry Vines told the story of sharing the gospel
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with a young lady from Rhode Island.
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And this young lady received Jesus as her savior and her Lord.
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And Dr. Vines in a followup conversation explained to her that as a child of God, she could go directly to God and pray and make her request known to God.
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And she was flabbergasted by this because she grew up in a church and a denomination that said, you can't go directly to God, you got to go through a priest.
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And Dr. Jerry Vines reassured her, look, anytime, anywhere, any place, you can get on your knees and you can talk to the father like a little boy talks to his father or a little girl talks to her father.
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And this lady in wide eyed amazement said, you mean when I talk to God,
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I don't have to go to a man and get him to talk to God for me?
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And Dr. Vines said, that's absolutely true. You don't have to go through anybody. You can go directly to the father, your way of access to the father and his throne is through the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Prayer is a vital part of every believer's life.
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It's the key to abiding in Christ.
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It's the key to spiritual blessings.
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It's the key to conquering sin.
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It's the key to spiritual confidence. It's the key to overcoming anxiety. It's the key to living the victorious Christian life.
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As a born again believer, you can pray anytime,
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you can pray anywhere and you can pray about anything.
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As a Christian, you have 24 seven access to the creator God.
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Now here's the truth I want you to put away in your mind and heart and soul.
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Jesus invigorates our prayer life.
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Nothing can invigorate your prayer life like the Lord Jesus Christ.
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So I want you to open your Bible to Hebrews chapter four.
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And I wanna read to you verses 14 through 16.
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Here's what the word of God says. "Therefore, since we have a great high priest
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"who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God,
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"let us hold fast our confession.
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"For we do not have a high priest "who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses,
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"but one has been tempted in always like we are "yet without sin."
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Verse 16, "Therefore, let us draw near with confidence "to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy "and find grace to help in time of need."
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Now in these verses, there are three ways, three key ways that Jesus invigorates our prayer life and turns it from a monotonous routine into a wonderful privilege. I really believe that prayer is a privilege that every believer needs to take advantage of.
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So the first thing I want you to notice about what Jesus does to invigorate our prayer life, number one, it's the supremacy of Jesus.
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I love this song.
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This song speaks of the supremacy of Jesus. Nobody can compare to Jesus, nobody.
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And so the Bible says in verse 14, let's rehearse it one more time. "Therefore, since we have a great high priest "who has passed through the heaven, "Jesus the Son of God,
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"let us hold fast our confession."
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Now you may be wondering, why is Jesus considered superior to every other human priest? Why?
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Well, it's because he is called the great high priest. Now listen, nobody else in the Bible is called the great high priest.
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Aaron was the first high priest of the Jewish people, but he was never called the great high priest.
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And there's a whole string of priests that came after Aaron
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and none of them were ever called the great high priest.
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Jesus is called the great high priest because of his ministry.
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He never committed a sin, not even one. What other priests could make that claim, huh?
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He serves in heaven, according to Hebrews chapter eight, verses one and two.
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He is our high priest forever, according to Hebrews chapter seven, verses 23 to 25.
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He identifies with us, according to Hebrews chapter two, verses 10 to 13. He's a merciful and faithful high priest, according to Hebrews 2.17 and chapter three, verses one and two. He sacrificed himself to save our souls. No other priests in all of history
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could ever make the claims that Jesus makes.
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No one in history has a right to be called the great high priest because nobody in history has ever had the kind of ministry that the Lord Jesus had and has.
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The Bible says that he has passed through the heavens. You see, I believe Jesus has called our great high priest, not only because of his ministry, but because of his identity.
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The Bible says he passed through the heavens. Now that verb past is a present tense verb.
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It refers to something that happened in the past that has ongoing relevance and implications in our lives and in the life of the whole world.
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You see, I want you to know that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ ascended to heaven.
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You know the story there in Acts, the book of Acts. Jesus is there with the disciples and he begins to raise up and he goes through the heavens. He goes through the atmospheric heaven.
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He goes through the heaven that contains the stars and the sun and then he goes into the third heaven that Paul went to at one point in his ministry, which is the heaven of heavens. This is where God reigns and rules.
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So he passed through the heavens.
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Now, Jesus died on the cross and he offered himself as a perfect and complete sacrifice for our sin. You may be here today, you may be watching live stream and you've never heard of the gospel.
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Let me tell you the gospel in a nutshell.
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Jesus died on the cross according to the scriptures.
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He was buried and three days later, he was raised from the dead according to the scriptures. It's the greatest good news this world has ever heard. Nothing can compare to it. So he was raised from the dead, he died for our sins, he ascended back to heaven where he presented his atoning blood to God the Father as a perfect payment for our sins.
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The Father accepted him and he accepted his sacrifice. And listen, the Father seated Jesus at his right hand in heaven. That's where Jesus is today.
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He's at the right hand of God on his throne in heavens.
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The Bible says in Hebrew chapter one, verse three, and he is the radiance of his glory in the exact representation of his nature and upholds all things by the word of his power. When he had made purification of sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. Wow.
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Furthermore, I want you to notice
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that Jesus is called here in verse 14, Jesus, the Son of God.
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Jesus, the Son of God. Now this combination pictures the perfect blend of our Lord's humanity and his deity.
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Jesus means savior.
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And the Son of God refers to his deity.
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Aaron could not make this claim.
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No other priests in all of history could claim to be fully God and fully man at the same time. And no priest in the future will ever be able to make this claim.
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That's why Jesus is called the great high priest.
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Now Jesus as our great high priest is seated next to God the Father in heaven.
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And he is interceding for you this way. If you're a born again believer, I want you to know he's interceding for you this morning.
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That's what makes our prayer life really get up and go. That's really what invigorates our prayer life. When we understand who Jesus is, when we understand his ministry, when we understand that he himself is interceding for you from heaven and the Holy Spirit of God who indwells you is interceding from you from your body which is a temple of the Spirit of God.
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If that doesn't invigorate your prayer life, I don't know what will.
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I got nothing more, nothing less left than that. Now notice this, Jesus never takes a day off.
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Never takes a day off.
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Jesus never gets tired.
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Jesus never allows anything to catch him by surprise because he knows everything.
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He draws upon the vast resources of heaven to meet your deepest needs.
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Glory to God.
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Considering the ministry and the identity of Jesus, our great high priest, we can certainly embrace the challenge here we find in verse 14, let us hold fast our confession.
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Now this refers to our confession of Jesus.
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Listen in Romans chapter 10 verses nine and 10.
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The Bible says that if you confess with your mouth, Jesus says, "Lord, and believe in your heart "that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. "For with the heart a person believes "resulting in righteousness, "and with a mouth he confesses resulting in salvation."
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Listen, I don't know the pressure or the kind of persecution that we may endure in the future. I do know it's coming.
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You say, how do you know that? Because the Bible says it's coming. It's coming.
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I don't know what pressure and persecution you will face in your life as a believer or what I will face in my life as a believer.
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But I do know this, we must never, never, ever, ever compromise what the Bible teaches about the Lord Jesus Christ.
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He is our great high priest and there is no other and there will never be another to compare with him.
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Jesus invigorates our prayer life.
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Now we're looking at three ways
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where Jesus adds purpose and meaning and zest to our prayer life. The first one is number one, the supremacy of Jesus. Here's the second one, the sympathy of Jesus.
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Aren't you glad that Jesus is a sympathetic high priest? Look at verse 15.
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"For we do not have a high priest "who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses.
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"But one who has been tempted in all things as we are "yet without sin."
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I'm so glad that Jesus, the son of God is our high priest.
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Though the word sympathize in the Greek is a compound word which means to suffer with. To suffer with.
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The use of the word here points to an intimate knowledge that is packed with feeling and concern for the person.
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Our great high priest understands us perfectly
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and he loves us permanently.
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Think about Jesus' ability to sympathize by remembering what happened when Lazarus died. John 11.
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You remember that story.
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Mary and Martha were absolutely devastated.
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Their brother had died and on top of that, they had sent for Jesus but he delayed in his coming. And while he delayed, their brother died.
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And Martha said to Jesus when he came, "Lord, if you've been here, my brother wouldn't have died."
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And evidently, the two sisters rehearsed that because when Mary got to him, she said exactly the same thing. "Lord, if you've been here, my brother wouldn't have died."
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And Jesus went to the tomb of Lazarus.
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And standing outside the tomb of Lazarus, the Bible says that Jesus, the Son of God who passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God who went to the cross and died for our sins, Jesus, the great high priest who was raised from the dead, he stood outside the tomb of Lazarus and he wept.
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He wept.
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He sympathized with the hurt and pain
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that Mary and Martha were experiencing at that moment.
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Now, Jesus had the power to do something about it.
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Remember, he told Lazarus to come out of the tomb and Lazarus came out of the tomb
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and it was a miracle, a miracle of miracles and many people were saved because of that.
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Now look again, I want you to remember this, your high priest, your great high priest, and I say your great high priest because he is your great high priest.
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He is continually responsive to your feelings and to your flaws.
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Look at verse 15 again.
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The Bible says that Jesus, our great high priest is one who has been tempted in all things as we are yet without sin.
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Now get this now, Jesus faced all kinds of temptations. Now those temptations were not internal, they were external, they were not internal because Jesus had no sin nature, okay?
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His temptations were external.
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I want you to think about this. I want you to think about the temptation to retaliation he might have experienced, the temptation that he experienced with hunger because remember Satan took him to the wilderness and Jesus went 40 days without eating and he was hungry. And Satan said, "If you'll look at those stones, "all you gotta do is turn them into bread "and you'll have something to eat."
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And Satan was tempting him
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with his hunger and pride.
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Satan took him up to the pinnacle of the temple
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and said, "If you jump off here, God will send an angel "and make sure you don't hurt yourself.
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"Or if you will bow down to me, "I'll give you all the kingdoms of the world."
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And Jesus resisted every one of those temptations.
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100% of them, all of them, and he did so without giving in to sin even one single time.
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Jesus was sinless.
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C.S. Lewis wrote, "Only those who try to resist temptation "know how strong it is."
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Christ, because he was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full of what temptation means.
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Think about it.
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Who really knows what it's like to fight the heavyweight champion of the world?
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Is it the guy who gets in the ring with him and he's knocked out in the first round?
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Or is it the guy who goes toe to toe, punch for punch with a heavyweight champion and he goes for 15 rounds?
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Let me tell you, friend, Jesus went 15 rounds with the enemy
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and he never broke, he never committed a sin.
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In Hebrews chapter two, verse 18, the Bible says, "For since he himself was tempted "in that which he has suffered, "he is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted." Aren't you glad of that? Aren't you glad that when Satan comes after you with a temptation that the Lord Jesus Christ, your great high priest, comes to your aid
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and provides a way of escape. Take your Bible, flip over to 1 Corinthians chapter 10. Look at verse 13, 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 13.
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Here's what it says,
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"No temptation has overtaken you, "but such as is common to man.
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"And God is faithful,
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"who will not allow you to be tempted "beyond what you're able, "but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also "so that you will be able to endure it."
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Aren't you glad that your great high priest comes to your aid when the enemy is coming at you with every amount of power imaginable to get you to sin, to fail God.
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The Lord Jesus understands you perfectly
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and He comes to your aid.
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I think you will agree with me.
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Prayer is an amazing privilege
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that is offered to every single believer.
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You say, "Well, pastor, I'm not the believer I should be. "Can I tell you this? "You still have the opportunity to pray."
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Pastor, I'm just not growing spiritually like I should. You still have the opportunity to pray.
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Pastor, I blew it last week. You still have the opportunity to come into the presence of the creator God and pray. You still have that opportunity.
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Oh, listen, dear friend. Here's a fact, you've got to get settled in your mind and heart. Jesus invigorates the prayer life of a woman and the prayer life of a believer.
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Now we're looking at three ways that Jesus has purpose and meaning and zest to the prayer life of a believer. God forbid, God forbid that we have some kind of humdrum, lifeless prayer life.
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First, we've noticed the supremacy of Jesus. I tell you, if you understand the supremacy of Jesus, your prayer life will be kicked into high gear.
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I tell you, if you understand the sympathy of Jesus and that he cares for you and he loves you and he comes to your aid when you desperately need it, your prayer life will be kicked into high gear.
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But there's one final thing about Jesus here in this text. In verse 16, I want you to see.
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It's the sincerity of Jesus. Look at verse 16.
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"Therefore, let us draw near with confidence "to the throne of grace so that we may receive mercy
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"and find grace to help in time of need." Now that doesn't light your fire, your wood is wet, I promise you. Jesus, our great high priest, had generally given you permission
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to approach the throne of a holy, holy, holy God
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and to make your request known to him.
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It's there that we can offer our prayer to the Lord, our God in heaven's holy of holies. This privilege of prayer is not based on our feelings,
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it's based on faith.
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You have the right to pray on your best day.
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You have the right to pray on your very worst day as a believer.
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Do you believe that? It's true.
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You can pray anytime, anywhere for anything.
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Now look at this.
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In John chapter 14 verse six, Jesus made this statement.
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He said, "I am the way and the truth and the life that I am." Listen, don't miss this last part. No one comes to the Father but through me.
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Our access to God the Father, our access to the Creator God is only through the Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians chapter two, verse 13 and verse 18.
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"But now in Christ Jesus, you who formerly were far off
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have been brought near by the blood of Christ."
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Listen to this, verse 18. "For through him we have our access in one spirit to the Father."
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Through Jesus, we have our access, whether we're Jew or Gentile, we have our one access to God the Father only through the Lord Jesus Christ.
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As a believer, Jesus has paved the way
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for you to come to the holy of holies in heaven
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and to pray to the Creator God anytime, as often as you wish, whenever you have a need.
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Listen, that's what I call invigorating our prayer lives.
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Lock in on the promise Jesus gave us here.
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Look at it, verse 16. "Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace."
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That puts us in the holy of holies in heaven at the very throne of the Creator God.
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And the Bible says, "So that," the purpose, "so that you may receive mercy
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and find grace to help in time of need."
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Now you say, well, pastor, what's the difference in mercy and grace?
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Well, mercy, in mercy, God does not give us what we deserve. Aren't you glad of that? Aren't you glad of the mercy of God?
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Because if he gave us what we deserve, oh my goodness.
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And grace is when God gives us what we don't deserve.
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See, we don't deserve forgiveness.
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We don't deserve his love.
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We don't deserve the many spiritual blessings we have in Christ Jesus. We don't deserve, but it's all a gift of his grace.
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Let me tell you, when God saved my soul there at Mississippi State, it was an act of God's grace. He gave me what I didn't deserve.
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J. Sidlow Baxter commented, I quote,
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he said, "By his finished work on the cross,
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we have a full, free, final, and forever forgiveness from God.
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By his intercessory priesthood,
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we are kept in continuous fellowship with God."
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That's amazing, isn't it? And again, let me give you an example.
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You remember right before Jesus died,
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Peter sort of acted up. You remember that?
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He said, "I'll never deny you."
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And Jesus said to him in Luke 22, verse 31 to 32, this is Jesus, now remember, a great high priest who was still, this is pre-cross, okay?
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Simon, Simon, the old Satan had demanded permission to sift you like wheat.
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But listen to this, "But I have prayed for you."
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Oh my goodness.
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I love it when you pray for me.
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But I love it even more when I know that Jesus prays for me, amen? He said, "But I have prayed for you," look at this, "that your faith may not fail.
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And you, when once you've turned again, strengthen your brothers."
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I'm gonna tell you, there are times when our prayers need some serious help.
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I mean, there are times when they are so blurred with improper motives.
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I mean, we pray, but we pray selfishly.
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You know, this is a selfie generation, you know.
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Everybody's taking selfies. There are people who have walked off the edge of the Grand Canyon taking selfies, and they died. Obviously, you walk off the edge of the Grand Canyon, you're gonna die, right?
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But this is a selfie generation. Unfortunately, the selfie generation has embraced selfish praying.
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And we don't have, as our primary motive, the glory of God.
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And then, on other situation, not only is our prayers blurred by improper motives, but sometimes our prayers do not line up with the will of God.
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We pray things that are contradictory to the will of God.
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However, listen, when they arrive at the throne of God in heaven, I got good news for you,
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Jesus, our great high priest, reformats our prayers.
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He turns them and helps us to turn them into things that are according to God's will and have the proper motives. Aren't you glad of that?
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I'll tell you, Jesus is better than AI any day. I guarantee you, okay? Okay?
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Now, prayer has been crafted by the Lord
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to be an integral part of every believer's life. Can I ask you a question? No, don't answer out loud.
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How much time have you spent praying this week?
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If you added it up, how many minutes, how many hours did you spend praying?
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Now, when you compare that to the hours and minutes you spent watching TV or you spent in your hobby,
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how does it shake out?
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Oh, can I tell you, God forbid that we take this amazing privilege of prayer and shove it to the side and make it a non-important part of our lives.
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I want you to know Jesus invigorates our prayer life.
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He adds purpose and meaning and zest to our prayer lives.
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And he does it because of the supremacy of Jesus, the sympathy of Jesus, and the sincerity of Jesus.
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Now, I want you to notice that there are basically two let uses in these three verses.
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Notice in verse 14, it's let us hold fast our confession.
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In verse 16, it's let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace.
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I tell you, we gotta take advantage of that, folks.
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It's like the Spirit of God is speaking to our hearts
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and we've got to maintain our confession and we gotta come regularly and boldly to the throne of God's grace.
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Do you see why Jesus is the only one who could ever carry the exclusive title, Great High Priest?
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And do you see why Jesus is the only one who can carry this kind of responsibility that comes with the title?
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Jay Sidlow Basterd said, "We couldn't stand for a moment down here if he were not living for us up there."
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Oh man, so true.
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So I ask you this morning,
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have you received Jesus as your savior and your Lord?
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I tell you, he loves you.
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He was willing to go to the cross and sacrifice himself to save your soul so that your sins could be forgiven and you could have abundant and eternal life through him. I wanna invite you this morning
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to leave your seat in just a moment, come to one of our staff members and just tell them today I wanna be saved.
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Or maybe you're a believer here today
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and I want you to rejoice in the privilege of prayer.
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Listen, Jesus loves you and he has your best interest at heart.
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So I want you to come to this altar today. Is there a failure in your life, a sin in your life you need to confess?
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Can I be honest with you?
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Man, don't even think twice about what other people will think.
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The only person that really matters is Jesus, our great high priest.
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And can I tell you this? He already knows what's in your heart.
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And I wanna invite you to leave your seat and come to the altar, bow your knee before our great high priest and confess to him the sin that the Holy Spirit has placed in your life
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and shown you that you need to get rid of it. You need to admit it and quit it. And then number two, if you're a born again believer, is there a need in your life that you need to bring to God's throne today? I invite you to leave your seat in just a moment. It's a real need in your life.
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And the Bible says that you can come to the throne of grace with that need this morning and I encourage you to come, bow your knee to our great high priest and tell him what your need is and ask him for help.
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Says he'll help you here in verse 16.
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And finally, is there a temptation that is hounding you?
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I mean, it's hounding you.
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And it's getting more powerful by the day.
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I wanna invite you to leave your seat and come to this altar,
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bow your knee before the great high priest and ask him to come to your aid.
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That he would help you to have victory over this temptation.
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I'm gonna ask our worship team to come, our staff to come.
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And I wanna invite you to respond
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in accordance with God's will this morning.
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