1. Real friendship and the pleading priest
Encountering God and Prayer
with Sarah and Abraham

2. Questions for us today:
Have you ever encountered God?
What has your prayer relationship with God been like?

6. You need to have a personal encounter with god
10 The Lord said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. 11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. 12 So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?” 13 The LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ 14 Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.” 15 But Sarah denied it, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid. He said, “No, but you did laugh.”

7. You need to have a personal encounter with god
It affirms your faith in God
3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. 11 Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.
1Corinthians 15: 3-11

8. You need to have a personal encounter with god
It affirms your faith in God (1 Corinthians 15:3-11)
The Apostles, even Paul had a personal encounter with Him
God wants to encounter with you:
You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.
Jeremiah 29:13

9. You need to have a personal encounter with god
Why haven’t I had an encounter with God?
Life has made me too cynical expect an encounter with God
11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. 12 So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?” 13 The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ 14 Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.”
Genesis 18:11-14

10. You need to have a personal encounter with god
Why haven’t I had an encounter with God?
Life has made me too cynical expect an encounter with God
I’m too afraid to encounter God
15 But Sarah denied it, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid. He said, “No, but you did laugh.”
Genesis 18:15

15. You need to have a personal encounter with god
Why haven’t I had an encounter with God?
Life has made me too cynical expect an encounter with God
I’m too afraid to encounter God
15 But Sarah denied it, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid. He said, “No, but you did laugh.”
Genesis 18:15
The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised.  2 And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him… 5 Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.6 And Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me.” 7 And she said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”
Genesis 21:1-2, 5-7

16. You need to have a personal encounter with god
Why haven’t I had an encounter with God?
Life has made me too cynical expect an encounter with God
I’m too afraid to encounter God
 28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Matthew 11:28-30

17. Questions for us today:
Have you ever encountered God?
What has your prayer relationship with God been like?

19. God wants us to intercede for others
God wants us to be involved in His Will (Gen 18:17-19) (Jn 15:15)
17 The Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, 18 seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? 19 For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.” Genesis18:17-19

20. God wants us to intercede for others
God wants us to be involved in His Will (Gen 18:17-19) (Jn 15:15)
15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.
John 15:15

21. God wants us to intercede for others
God wants us to be involved in His Will (Gen 18:17-19) (Jn 15:15)
It brings us closer to God (Genesis 18:22-23) (James 4:7-8)
22 So the men turned from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord. 23 Then Abraham drew near and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?  Gen 18:22-23

22. God wants us to intercede for others
God wants us to be involved in His Will (Gen 18:17-19) (Jn 15:15)
It brings us closer to God (Genesis 18:22-23) (James 4:7-8)
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
James 4:7-8

23. God wants us to intercede for others
God wants us to be involved in His Will (Gen 18:17-19) (Jn 15:15)
It brings us closer to God (Genesis 18:22-23) (James 4:7-8)
God wants us to partake in His Grace (Genesis 18:23-33) (John 14:12-14)

24. God wants us to intercede for others
God wants us to be involved in His Will (Gen 18:17-19) (Jn 15:15)
It brings us closer to God (Genesis 18:22-23) (James 4:7-8)
God wants us to partake in His Grace (Genesis 18:23-33) (John 14:12- 14)
Will you indeed sweep away the righteous and the wicked? Fifty people?
…I am but dust and ashes… forty five?
…Let not the Lord be angry and I will speak… thirty?
…I have undertaken to speak before the Lord… twenty?
… O let not the Lord be angry and I will speak… ten?

25. God wants us to intercede for others
God wants us to be involved in His Will (Gen 18:17-19) (Jn 15:15)
It brings us closer to God (Genesis 18:22-23) (James 4:7-8)
God wants us to partake in His Grace (Genesis 18:23-33) (John 14:12-14)
12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. John 14:12-14

26. Have you ever encountered God?
What has your prayer relationship with God been like?