MTS-2 Bar Montenegro

October 2009

Session Four

Why Am I Here?  To Serve His Church

Becoming a House of Prayer?  Luke 19:46

Introduction:
Yesterday we talked about and practiced the action of prayer called Intercession.  This prayer is the kind that “takes a stand before God on behalf of another’s problems or condition.” But before we even started yesterday’s session, we knew that what God’s Word says about intercession and what we were going to engage in would be perhaps the most important thing we would bring into the weekend.  And the enemy seemed to take some annoying shots at the session:
1.    Rick’s computer froze
2.    The beamer went out
3.    The storm hit right in the middle of our time, and
4.    The morning was somewhat disjointed.
But…
1.    We prayed powerfully for Montenegro
2.    Volker and Natia were here to get prayer
3.    The Lord Jesus was worshiped and honored here

There were some things we didn’t get to do yesterday that we feel would be important to our week together, especially in relation to intercession and the churches we serve alongside of.

Transition:
First we would like to hear from you:
What ways has your field incorporated intercessory prayer into the lives of your team?
How have you tried to create a culture of intercession in your team?
How have you made prayer a priority?

Teaching Intro:
Define CHURCH – hospital, corporation, army, big bible study, small group, my family, temple of God, bride, established on earth for heaven, the church is me, a bunch of believers.
The Apostle Peter said CHURCH is a building – not the brick and mortar type, but a living temple or edifice.  Each stone perfectly fit for its place.
Jesus uses this metaphor, too. My house – shall be a house of prayer

For the church to become a house of prayer, we need to become intercessors!

Define “Intercession” and “Intercede” – in the Greek a compound word – “between” and “to go” – it’s the specific kind of prayer that takes a position before God on behalf of another person or people. Presents their case, appeals to God’s mercy, and asks for God’s active participation in changing the situation or condition.

Successful Intercessors:

1.    Intercessors keep their focus on God’s glory, eternity, and what He values while praying for the needs of a person, city, or nation.
Illus. Peter Lord, author and disciple-maker, said that in our intercession, we should keep our gaze on the eternal and our glance on the need.
Illus. C.S. Lewis quote from Crazy Love by Francis Chan says: “If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.”

2.    Intercessors are not afraid to get their hands dirty. Not afraid to hug, grab a hand, put a hand on a shoulder, no matter the condition of that shoulder.
Rick: When I was serving in San Antonio, a lady had gotten an infection in her leg. I didn’t think much of it – how bad could a leg infection be. She showed me her gangrenous leg and I covered it back up, and interceded for her through the cloth bandages. Not really hoping much – next Sunday morning she walked down the aisle to speak with me and we both rejoiced in God’s answer to our intercession.

3.    Intercessors pray early, late, long, short, and often.
There are four timelines for prayer in the Bible:
•    Unceasing Prayer – an attitude that jumps to prayer whenever the needs come about.
•    Prayer of the Moment – Nehemiah prayed a quick prayer before answering the king.
•    Extended prayer – hours, days, 40 days, etc.
•    Specific and consistent time in prayer – Acts the disciples when up for prayer.

One thing is certain, intercessors pray often, and seek to grow in their skills.

4.    Intercessors see the Church as victorious – the Church takes ground, advance, endure until fruit comes.

5.    Intercessors follow the Scriptures – we pray promises and what we find about the heart of God in the Bible. (John 17, the Lords Prayer, epistles)

Rick: Several years ago, I took a weeklong silent retreat and read through the NT, and highlighted every time prayer or one of the key words for prayer was used and spent time thinking about these passages. Prayer is all through the Bible, especially in the NT. God’s people pray, a lot!

God longs for a church that is a house of prayer, praying for the nations and for individuals, defeating the works of the enemy through powerful, “palal” (intercessory) praying.

Table Time:
Flip chart – Go back to your passages from yesterday’s table time on examples of intercession. Let’s write down practical intercessory principles from your discussion that we can use on our fields today.

Closing:
Pray for the fields we have already heard from. Choose which one you want to pray for. Use the principles we have listed here to help you in praying for these fields.

MTS-2 Bar Montenegro
October 2009

Session Three
Why Am I Here? To Intercede for Others

Powerful Prayer – Jonah 2:1-2

Introduction:
There are a lot of different ways we tell others we will pray for them. We say “I’ll hold you in my prayer.” Or “I’ll keep you in my prayers.” Or “I will lift you up.” Or just “I’ll pray for you.” But do we, are consistent to our word.

Here is a video clip that talks about one way we get prayer.

Table Time:
We want to start off with some table time. Divide into 4’s and each table has a section of the Bible to discover the following: (one group takes “Pentateuch” the next takes the OT History books, the next takes the Prophets, the next the Psalms and Proverbs, and the next the NT.)
Find two examples of Intercession.
1. Who was the intercessor?
2. Who are they praying for?
3. What were they requesting?
4. What was the outcome?

➢ Why are we here?
o We realize that you got here by prayer. You have a team of people who are praying for you. Many of you are in places that, if you were not praying and being prayed for, would not still be there. And your life and your ministry depend on prayer.
o Someone said that the work of most evangelical churches in the West – if prayer and the work of the Holy Spirit were removed –would continue as usual. We have to be careful not to begin to depend on our own skills, strengths, and experiences. Unless we continue to pray and grow in prayer, our ministry and our relationship with God can drop into a routine. We live and work in our own strength and God’s presence and power are absent.

Teaching Intro:
Define “Intercession” and “Intercede” – in the Greek, it is a compound word – “between” and “to go” – and it’s the specific kind of prayer that takes a position before God on behalf of another person or people. Then presents their case, appeals to God’s mercy, and asks for God’s active participation in changing the situation or condition.

Ministries and Missions that are experiencing consistent evidence of God’s power and seeing lives changed are making Intercession a priority. They are not just praying normal, everyday “bless me” prayers. They have at least four things in common (credit to C. Peter Wagner for the promptings for these):
1. Intercessors encouraged – they acknowledging that some people are gifted with a passion and effectiveness for Intercessory Prayer – and giving them ministry encouragement.
2. Surrounding Intercession – the are identifying important times in the calendar for intercession, especially during times when ministry happens, the Word is preached, outreaches occur – and they pray before, during, and after these times.
3. Calendared Intercession – they have calendared and created office space physically for intercession to happen consistently, so that prayer becomes a team priority.
In Italy, we are moving toward daily intercession, as well as pre-event teams who will intercede in the cities before we do outreaches.
4. Strategic Intercession Partnerships – they are connecting with other churches and with pastors and ministries who are passionate for evangelism, discipleship and God’s glory and supporting one another in intercession.

Jonah 2:1-2 – Powerful Intercession
Out of all the prophets, Jonah is not the typical example of intercession. You know the story well:
o Prophet of the Living God
o Vowed to declare His word
o Serving in Jerusalem
o Gets the call to deliver a judgment to Nineveh – biggest pagan city of his day. Hated among the Hebrews for their vicious treatment of Jews.
o Knows God’s mercy will fall on Nineveh if they listen and repent.
o Goes other way toward Spain and the end of the world.
Seems to do everything except intercede for the Ninevites.
But something happens in that fish. He hears from God, repents, and becomes an intercessor.
2:1-2 Not just the typical prayers – “his prayers go up before God” – he intercedes. “Palal” is the Hebrew word for this kind of prayer called intercession. It’s the same word the Bible uses for Moses when God was ready to destroy the Hebrews and he interceded for their sake and for God’s glory and fame. Deut 9:26-29.
James 5 is the NT example of “palal” prayer – powerful and passionate prayer accomplishes much. Not sure where you are theologically with God bringing mercy where he promised judgment. And God acting on behalf, or not acting on behalf depending on whether or not we pray. But while you straighten this out, you better be praying.

Illus. In the 1940’s God raised up some incredibly passionate prayer warriors that set the stage for a move of missions, youth work, discipleship and evangelism in the 60’s. InterVarsity, Christian Literature Crusade, Navigators, Mission Aviation Fellowship, Wycliffe Bible Translators, Campus Crusade for Christ, and of course OM were all born out of a movement of dependence on God and intercession.
Dawson Trotman, the founder of Navigators, was led to take a map and list of California counties up into the mountains every day 5 a.m. with a friend. After one week they had prayed through the western United States, and at the end of two weeks they were across the nation. On week three they took a world map and pray for and point to and touch each country on the world map. They would intercede for these countries and ask God to let them make disciples in each culture. After 42 days a burden seemed to lift off of him. Years later, he was straightening his desk, found cards from people all over the United States and around the globe who had come to Christ because of his work.
When we pray “palal” we bring God’s activity and merciful judgment.

Closing:
Pray as a group. Intercede for Montenegro. For their leaders. For:
1. The Work in Montenegro
2. Their leaders
3. Other mission teams
4. Churches and pastors
5. The Lost

MTS-2 Bar Montenegro
October 2009

Session Two
Why Am I Here? To Worship Him

How Big Is My God? Jeremiah 33:1-9

Introduction:
➢ Why are we here?
o My guess is that there are patterns with new missionaries. Even old missionaries were at some point new missionaries. We feel adequate, up to the task, before we came. Something gave us a sense that we were created for, equipped for the field.
o Illustration: After all, I am a pastor, have been a long time, I have degrees, and my wife has degrees. She was a missionary, and besides, we’re Americans, too. Doesn’t this count for something? And after all, we have joined OM. 120 countries, 5000 missionaries… 50 years. Hot stuff!
o Our perceptions of a missionary give us an idea that we have what it takes to do it. Then we are obedient and go for it. Then we get here.

➢ What were you before you came to the field?
o What were your gifts and passions?
o What did you enjoy doing in Christian service?
o What did people recognize you for?
o What degrees do you have?
o What certifications did you acquire?
o What were your strengths?

➢ We bring a lot to the field with us and sometimes we even get to use these things. But with all the wonderful talents and accomplishments we bring to the table, the most important is our worship. In fact, the rest don’t even make the list with worship.

Jeremiah 33:3 BIG GOD, little me.
Teaching Introduction: Remember Jeremiah, courtyard, imprisoned, Babylonians surrounded, infrastructure breakdown, kingdom on verge of collapse …And the Israelites continued to say they won’t face judgment, because: God lives here, temple is here, priests are doing their stuff. They were certain that they didn’t sign up for this.

For them, nothing was more significant than this moment, nor important than this place, nor demanded God’s attention than these circumstances – God, at some point, had come to belong to them, rather than they to Him. He was created for them, instead of they for Him. (He had chosen them as a people for Himself, to declare his glory to the nations.)

They had forgotten that they were made for Him, and their story was a small part of a greater, God-sized redemption story.

Illustration: Louie Giglio (in his book “I am not, but I know I AM”) reminds us of this in a unique way – we are really small, and God is really BIG.
o Think how many centuries of people have come and gone that don’t know you.
o Or that 99.9(32 times point 9) of the people alive right now don’t know you and never will.
o And all but a handful will move on within hours of your funeral. We are small – and He is BIG. Not depressing, but liberating!
o We may be microscopic, but we are loved infinitely by a BIG GOD and our lives have the potential to affect generations. As long as we remember – He is God and we are not. We are created for Him, not the other way.

Illustration: Giglio says it this way – God is “I Am” we are all “iamnot.”

He is:
o Center of it all,
o Creator,
o In charge,
o Immeasurable,
o More than enough,
o Savior,
o Lord,
o All knowing, all-powerful – and it all holds together in Him. And he is doing fine with it all, thank you very much.

And all that he is, iamnot.
You have just come into the story that has been playing out in His wisdom all along – and the most significant thing we can do is worship Him in the midst of that story.
➢ God meets us in the moments of pain/joy – yet eternity is the span of his hand.
➢ God draws near to us in an intimate love – yet he is enthroned in highest heavens.
➢ God calls each of us his child and longs for time with him – yet, he has generations, and multitudes He is calling to Himself.
➢ God speaks to us in our circumstances – yet, the same voice holds the galaxies in place.
Illustration: John the Baptist – ministry waning, recognized key principle increase/decrease. Our gifts, talents, passions, degrees, skills, ministries we start, etc. – all are to shine the spotlight on Jesus. If they don’t, they are not worth doing. For he is God and Lord alone.

“There is not one square centimeter in the entire universe for which Christ Jesus does not cry out, ‘Mine!'” –Abraham Kuyper

Table Time:
Here are our passages for this morning. We want you to look up as many as you want to and focus on one passage and ask these two questions.
o Who is God in this passage?
o What does it mean to you today?
Passages:
➢ Hebrews 11:1-6
➢ Psalm 105:1-11
➢ Psalm 147:1-20
➢ Psalm 139:1-18

Movie clip introduction: Giglio found an awesome illustration about God’s glory and His BIGness! –

➢ Jeremiah, after declaring the end of the world, as his listeners knew it, listed the awesome ways God would fulfill His promises. Remember, verse 3 speaks of the unsearchable, and the secret – meaning what God has already said and promised to do, will be brought to light. Now, look at 33:6-9. How does this translate to our lives and the people we serve? He will:
o Free them
o Heal them
o Rebuild them
o Cleanse and forgive them
So that – read verse 9! When we submit to the I Am (way, truth, life, resurrection,) who went to the cross. He declares to the nations what v9 promises!

Closing:
Pair up and take the next 10 minutes to pray for one another. It would be best to pair up with someone you don’t know their story, but as God leads you. Hear a little of each other’s stories, then pray for each other that Jesus would increase in their lives as they decrease.

MTS-2 Bar City, Montenegro
October 2009

Session One
Why Am I Here? To Know Him

How Do I Ask The Right Questions? Jeremiah 33:3

➢ What were your expectations like when we prepared to come to the field?
➢ What did you think about when you were getting ready to come to the field?
o Where would I live?
o What would my team be like?
o How would my language learning go?
o Who would respond to the gospel and my work there?
o How would the culture respond to me being there?
o What would my relationship with my home church be?
o What would my relationship with my local church be?
o Where would I shop, eat, hang out, find a new book, watch a movie?

➢ You don’t always get what you expect as the real world settles into our dreams and hopes
In an early Tom Hanks movie called The Money Pit, expectations were in for a harsh awakening. Hanks and his wife longed for owning and restoring their own old home. But the undiscovered details overwhelmed them.

When we come to the mission field and begin to adjust to the needs and capacities of the new assignment, we make shifts in what we are called to do. Our focus changes for a season in order to fit into the team or the rhythm of our family needs. It’s not that we change our reason for coming or being in missions – it all just adjusts to reality.

Teaching Introduction: Asking the Right Questions
Illustration: Successful men have the right answers; world changers and wise people know how to ask the right questions.
God honors people with questions. When you ask God tough questions, he answers. In fact, your questions:
➢ Say to God you are a learner,
➢ Say to your team members you are humble, and
➢ Say to those you seek to reach that you are authentic.

Jeremiah sought God’s answer. He was imprisoned in a military courtyard by the state police. The people he served were suspicious of him and his prophecies. Yet, they still hoped he would give a positive prophecy so they could avoid being overrun by their enemies, the Babylonians
He was calling out to God so Jeremiah could get God’s perspective, God’s solution, God’s revelation, and God’s answers.
➢ Ask the Right Person – acknowledging who God is became his starting point. Read verse 2 and the beginning of verse 3 to see where Jeremiah started.
Illustration: I am convinced that the biggest result of my personal time with God each day is a fresh revelation of who God is. When I bow before God, look into His word, open my ears to hear his voice, lift my hands in worship – I see in a fresh way how BIG God is!
The people of Israel needed this – they had “put Him in a box.” He was contained in “the temple.” And they wanted Jeremiah to fit the prophecies of what God said into this box.
➢ Ask the Right Questions – the word at the beginning of the verse here is to call out, cry out, or declare. He shouted out what God would do. But the word also means to request or invite. God was inviting Jeremiah and all who would believe in Him to invite His presence and solution into their problem.
Illustration: There are two types of questions that educators will tell you about: closed and open. Closed – are answered by yes/no/one word answers. They invite no relationship. They bring only a single level of meaning. – like “Do you like your wife?” Yes, no. However, open questions bring conversation. They invite relationships. They bring multiple levels of meaning and invite the input and involvement of the person addressed. For instance, –“What do you like about your wife?“ says “tell me all about her.”
Application: When you ask God questions, make them open-ended. We all to often say to God, “God, here is my plan, would you bless it?” What can He say? Uh ok? Make your questions to Him open. “God, I have worked hard on this and I want to see you bless it? What do you want to do with this plan, with me, and with those who are affected? How can it bring you glory? Who do you have that you plan to touch? Can I see and hear what you are doing in relation to this?”
Illustration: Do you remember what God’s first question was? “Where are you?” Adam’s answer could be a short answer, but the question called for relationship, return, repentance, and several levels of answers. And today, God is still asking this question of the world he loves so much.
➢ Anticipate the Answers – When you ask God to intervene or give input into your circumstances, do so with expectation that He will answer. What kind of answer does he give to Jeremiah? Great, mighty, hidden, undisclosed, beyond imagining kinds of answers. The word really means what God has already spoken and desired, he will reveal it! When our questions line up with His heart’s desire, we see his will revealed and his answers come.

Application: Jesus says to his disciples that he shares his plans with his children. When you ask God to bring His input you’re your life, expect his answers to come as not just words but his powerful hand at work in your midst.

Group Exercise: “My Expectations”

Expectations for the MTS-2 retreat – Why Are You Here this Week?
➢ What expectations, dreams, needs, questions do you want to see realized during the next few days?
➢ Write down your expectations and hand in these sheets with your expectations. Think of these expectations in light of the field and where you are now.
➢ Write down three questions you want God to answer, resolve, and shed light on.

Closing:
Our goal this week during this hour is to create a place where you can connect with God:
During the next few days, we will have a chance to grow in our skills, discover some things about what we do and why we do them, to learn from each other, and to hear from God.
• In worship (heart)
• In study (mind)
• In discussion (voice)
• In sharing (story)