Top 10 Prayers of the New Testament #5

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Speaker 1: But how do we pray when someone crushes, betrays, abandons, abuses, or robs us Our gut screams for God's righteous wrath. It's humans. It's what we do, even for believers. We Christians tis tisk vengeance from a safe distance. Yet quotes like Nietzsche's ring true. It's impossible to suffer without making someone pay for it. Every complaint already contains revenge. Wow. Our ancient duty, it seems, is to exact revenge for ourselves or your friends will say, it's not only a right, it's an absolute duty. We know that we should not feel it, but to be honest, it would be a rare thing for a victim to not feel that desire for vengeance at one point in time, And of course the Bible condemns it. Deuteronomy vengeances mind Proverbs say, I will recompense evil. Wait for the Lord. Matthew five, love your enemy, pray for those who persecute me. Luke eighteen Shall God not avenge his elect Romans twelve, do not avenge yourself. And Yet, to our shame, so many of us found that it is easier said than done. Matter of fact, all of us so our top ten per number five. Is not just an admonition that we shouldn't feel vengeance because we will. No, is Jesus himself pleading to his father in heaven that the Father would forgive those who were unjustly victimizing, abusing, violently dishonoring him to death. Yeah, so maybe he knows something that we can't know that ameliorated the violence. Perhaps they were unaware Jesus may be thinking moved by mob mentality, confused by religious leaders, ordered by commanders, unaware that there's a God who loves the unlovable, the unlovely, unworthy and unlikely like them, or unaware that the eternal God had enter time and space, unaware that the age of the Messiah was now, unaware that they were assassinating God in the flesh. Still, okay, let's say some of that was true. Does that get them off a hook for what they did to Jesus. No. Here we are in the presence of something too good to imagine. A prayer that's something very special, of which I could say that I have not seen imagined by any other religion or any other reported deity. God desiring forgiveness for his own assassins. God forgive your enemies. Welcome to Gospel rre In Podcasts and doctor Bill Senor YouTube channel. I'm your host, Doctor Bill Sinyard. We're free wherever you get podcasts of course on YouTube as well, so please subscribe. As always, one of the fastest ways you can help us grow is by leaving your comments below. If you're on YouTube, thanks sincerely for that. Also, thanks for making Gospel rat podcast one of the top ten percent in the world, and thank you for listening every week and commenting. Bill at Gospel dash app dot com. I love it and we hope that it helps to regularly hear about God's love that loves the unlovable, the love the unlovely, then worthy, unlikely, the hurting, and that's all of us are any given day. I'm going through my list of top ten prayers the New Testament. We're at number five, and as I mentioned, all the top five are from Jesus himself. This is my subjective list. You may have a different list. You may ask the question, well, how is this number five instead of number one? Yeah, so get in touch with me either comment below if you're watching YouTube or Bill at Gospel dash app dot com, and I'd love to hear from you. Yep, welcome to the top ten prayers of the New Testament. I want to get right into it. After this brief word from our sponsors. We'll be right back. Father, forgive them, Jesus says, for they do not know what they do Luke twenty three thirty four. All right, let's not forget Jesus could have called upon having to rain down revenge and justice right then and there. You know, Yeah, there's times I wish I could have I could do that right. And not only does he abstain from revenge, but he does something remarkable. He pleads with God, the Father who's watching this, for the salvation of those those who who are treating him most cruelly. It would have been a great matter not to think of rendering evil for evil on Peter three nine. But this is far higher and more excellent to pray that God would forgive his enemies, the ones who were causing his son such dehumanization, victimization, pain and suffering injustices. So when Christ I saw and he knew it right, But both the Jewish people and the soldiers raged against him blind fury, though their ignorance was not excusable. He had beyond our human capacity compassion and pity on them. Yeah, that's just that just doesn't bubble up for me. Right, And he presented himself as their intercessor, put their sins on me. He not only abstained from cursing, but even prayed for their welfare. That's the DNA of God. That's the DNA of our God, Christians, not me, But that is the DNA of our God. We forget multiple paths. If there are multiple paths, why wouldn't you pick this one? Because this is the DNA of this God. Yeah, Peter picked it up, and I picked it up. I mean the Holy Spirit entered Peter and he began to manifest this exact spirit in his first sermon where he urges those who assassinated Jesus, his Lord, his friend to come to the cross to be rescued. That's in Acts two thirty six to thirty nine. Right, that's pretty gussy. Do not hear me saying that we should fake it till we make it. With regard to being beat up in desiring vengeance, denying my feeling for vengeance, I'm saying this is gonna bubble up. You're human, But you can access God's compassion through the Holy Spirit. Yeah. So one, it's human nature to desire vengeance, two is not in God's God's DNA is to extend mercy and grace and even redemption to perpetrators who deserve wrath instead. And so three, what we do we be regularly filled with His spirit and whom is such natural mercy and grace until you two begin to feel it alongside the usual human desire for vengeance. Don't get me wrong, God will his wrath will do vengeance. That's part of justice. There's a compassion. There's a compassion where he where his son can take on that injustice on his shoulders. That's a whole different ball game. Yeah, so pause and just think about that. Right, I'm saying I can't and God does, And so how do I bridge the gap? His spirit in me can make me want to forgive my enemies I can't. He does. He can make me empower me to want to. That's the point. Then that makes sense. So what does this prayer tell us about God? God desires enemy salvation. God's mercy trumps justice. Initially, God's spirit imparts his DNA to humans. God trusts final reckoning, God incarnates grace. What this prayer says about us we do vengeance. It's an eight. We can't self generate mercy. Dual desires coexist and can coexist human wrath and divine grace within believers. We need a miracle shift to feel God's love for perpetrators. That's why you can't. Only God forgives. So here's a cross forgiveness prayer kind of unpacked from this one. Just listen and you can use it. I think maybe it will help, and along with praying for the Holy Spirit from the last podcast to come and empower you to love other people that would include your enemies. Yeah, go right. So here's a prayer. Just listen, Father, give me power, your power through your spirit and my inner being to feel Jesus's love, mercy, grace for me and my abusers, those people who mistreat me. I can't sink my heart with yours towards my enemy. Help me rest, make me rest all crimes weighed perfectly in the end. I need that miracle. Father, forgive them. They didn't know what they did. They don't know what they're doing. They don't know they're doing this to you as well. Amen, and then keep praying that and ask you for God's spirit and power, his power till that inkling aligns with Jesus' DNA, and then release. Well, here's one of the discussion questions in my upcoming book on good enough prayer. Vengeance feels innate. God's DNA is mercy for the undeserving. So recall a time human wrath clashed with God's grace in your life? What spirits sink Ephesian's three power could shift those dual desires towards Jesus's pity for the perpetrators, the ones who are hurting you. Yeah, okay, let's keep going. What's next. I'm going to tell you after this brief word from our sponsors. So what's next? The number four top ten prayer has been misunderstood by so many. It's a quote from an Old Testament complaint Psalm twenty two. Jesus was in tremendous pain on the cross, personal deep unwanted. What he uttered from that place is shocking and relevant for all who suffer for our faith today. Yep, as I mentioned, I'm finishing up a book on all of the top twenty prayers. It's not a shame and guilty kind of thing. It's going over these prayers and giving everyone an idea. The ideas you pick three or four of these and you try to implement them right. And it's going to come out some time later this year Good Enough Prayer. Email me at Bill at Gospeldaeshap dot com to know exactly when it's going to be released or getting on mailing list, and then you'll know all upcoming books. There's going to be some amazing what's coming out. There's one just after that called good Enough Christianity that's going to be amazing, great devotion for groups. Discussion questions will be added. Let me know if you have any questions. In the meantime, Take Heart, Child of God.