Driven to Prayer

Came from him already. He has to adjust the cameras

just so we can do that. But I just think

it's easier to kind of talk in this in this way.

There was there's a couple of pictures. Don't click on

them yet. Maybe we'll have them after the sermon because

they'll stop the recording otherwise. But Juliette has safely arrived

in Uganda. Well hey when she arrived, so it was

you know, she tries to do it as cheaply as possible.

So it's a three step flight. So I think you

went through Addis Ababa and Nairobi t in Tebbe, so

that's quite a long journey. And then the reason she

does that is because otherwise she rights if she if

she flies direct, which you and I would do, You

would think about flying direct. That means she arrives late

at night, which means she has to stay in a

hotel at the airport to then get to Ginger the

following day. But this means she's flown by three planes,

then gets in the car, drives all the way to Ginger.

It's nearly a forty eight hour trip, so which is

why she does it. For a month, she's gone for

a month now, but there's there's some some beautiful pictures

there of Juliet safely arriving. As she arrived at the home,

and they've been having a dry spell just like us.

The heavens opened. The heavens opened so much that it

blew some of the guttering out that you know, so

much rain fell in about an hour and she said,

we needed it, so thank you God. So Juliet's arrived safely.

We're in this and I also want to say, you know,

please be part of what Keris's doing. You know this,

this is exciting stuff. It's not just Eggum. She's touching

the whole of Surrey. She's responsible for the whole of

Surrey and bits of London as well, and other things

that will open up. And she kind of hinted at

Prayers Stream. Prayers Stream has just been launched and they've

got a caravan they're going to be taking to every

universe around the country over the next three years. It

was literally launched that wildfires just a few weeks ago.

So it's a caravan going around and I know Carrys

is going to lead one or two of the teams

when they go to certain universities in the months ahead,

so exciting stuff. But she's not just asking for money.

This is not an appeal for money. It's appeal for partnership,

and partnership starts in prayer. If you partner with her

for a pound, she'll be great. But because she's more

hungry after your prayers than the money, to be honest,

So please be part of that. You know, even if

you can only give a pound, if that's out your

pocket money, for those listing online, for some of our

children who are listing online, if you can just give

a pound out your pocket money, it'd be great to

have the generations praying for Carris. So they go today

and this month we've been looking at lessons from the

Book of Daniel. Anybody liked the Book of Daniel? Yeah,

I like the Book of Daniel because it's very relevant

to today. If we look at the mess of our

politics and the mess of our government, there's a lot

of it in Daniel. And so I'm trying to leave

some space for Letty to close this out at the

end of the month and next week. So I didn't

go right to the end, Letty, So I really want

to kind of share a title here that says driven

to prayer. Has anybody ever been asked to do something

bigger than you can ever do? I'd like you to

think about, for example, I remember this distinctly the first

time I gave a double figure offering. Now you've got

to remember, I'm sixty five years old, so when I

was a student, a double figure offering was a large

amount of money to me. I could go out for lunch.

In fact, let me tell you a little story. I

used to be because of my surname food. They said, Dave,

you'd be great for the student newspaper to go and

review some of the local restaurants. I went, yeah, okay,

thinking i'd have to pay for it myself. And what

I learned was as soon as I walked in the place,

if I gave them a business card and said I'm

here reviewing for the university, I get a few free dishes.

And so what i'd have is I say, look, i'd

just like to try some different things, So I'll have

two starters and two desserts. He is that, okay, and

quite often I get them all for free. And one

particular Portuguese restaurant, the guy was so enamored he said Dave,

can I take you around my wine cellar? And he

took me around the wine sturry. Let me try two

or three different ports. Oh, I had a great time.

But you know what the first thing was is so

the reason why I told you all of that was

because when I went out for a meal, I was

spending three four five pounds, so to give ten pounds

was a lot of money. As a student, the first

time I had to do that was are you really

saying this God? You know? And sometimes God just wants

us to go to the next level, and I'm focusing

on giving. The first time you get asked to give

a three figure some or a four figure some, or

give a car away or you know, just like that

gentleman gave away the money for the fair. I want

to believe that you and I have faith to believe

that God can do himmeasurably more than we ask or imagine,

miasurably more than we asked her imagine. We used to

have a lady in this church. Her name was May.

Some of you may still remember her. She was brought

up in a Christian home in Wales and in the

Second World War, her father was a preacher in the

Second World War. They felt that they should go to

a particular church, and there was petrol rations. There was

petrol rations, so and this is a long way away,

and so they they didn't have a lot of money.

They didn't they had some petrol vouchers. They went and

got some petrol and they drove believing that God was

going to provide the rest of the petrol, a bit

like the story to Netshed. And they got about. They

got there, preached, the word came out, looked at the

petrol gauge. Nothing to go home, no petrol station anywhere near.

So they laid hands on the car and prayed and

prayed and prayed until petrol started coming out of the

petrol petrol gauge on the car. I remember Mace sharing

this with me. She's tears still in their eyes as

she said, you know, God is able to do immeasurably

more than we ask or imagine. So I'm starting off

with the basis of saying, what is it like when

God asks you to do something you feel you cannot do.

This is really the story of Daniel. Chapter eight and

chapter nine. I'm not going to read all the stories here,

but I really want to set up the scene that

basically and that you know, if we read in Daniel eight,

we read that actually Persia and Greece not only did

they rise, but they fell even before they were on

the map. God always works in his way. He's able

to set up nations, he's able to pull them down,

and Daniel still was going to be faithful. So I'm

going to give you a challenge this morning. I'm going

to ask Jonathan nor Or, let's put up Daniel chapter nine,

verse twenty three, and I'm going to ask you to

read it nine verse twenty three and as soon as

you've read it, would you stand up as you've read it?

Would you just stand up? So I'm just doing a

bit of a reading test. Okay, I've got some fast readers. Okay, good, Okay,

reading test over, you can sit down again. Now here's

the challenge. I'm going to bring up in a moment

a picture which is not what you're going to expect.

I'd like you to read it, and as soon as

you've finished, and some of you may not finish, so

don't don't. That's not a problem, but some of you

may not finish. So if Michael, if you'd like to

bring that up. There you go. When you've finished, just

please stand. Okay, I'm not making a competition here, sit down.

So here's the thing. Some of you are looking at it,

still looking. This is gobbledegoo, this is rubbish. What on

earth are you putting up in front of us? Past

the dave. But as soon as you get to the phrase,

it says the research says that if the first letter

and the last letter in the right position, suddenly you

have a framework to be able to read it. And

it's just a fascinating thing that was up on the web,

and I just thought it fits into my sermon. Thank

you God. It kind of okay. I'm not testing your

reading skill. I'm just saying, when God asks you something difficult,

what's your response. Some of you read the first line

and that I can't do this. I give up. Anybody

want to admit to that. The first time I had

to guard Jah, I was you know. But we need

to persevere. We need to persevere, We need to persevere

and press in. And so when God asked us to

do something impossible, then we're doing it by faith. Here's

the thing. As Tonk nicely set me up. If you

had the money in your pocket to pay for the railfare. Well,

of course, no problem. I gave an example of maybe

we had another couple in the church gym, and now

there used to be Elim past us and they lived

in the Spring near Spring Avenue near us actually, and

when they were younger, they had children, and they'd sit

down at the dining room table, and sometimes they didn't

have enough food to serve up, so they'd lay the table.

They'd literally lay the table, put down the plates, the

knives in the fort with the children sitting at the

table together, and they pray. And a number of times

somebody turned up and said, I've cooked too much. I

brought this round. It's still hot. Is that okay? Can

you use it literally? Sometimes sometimes people turn up on

the doorstep in the summer. He talked about how somebody

turned up on the doorstep and they had a whole

box full of food because it was hot, they could

make a salad very quickly, and they God provides. God

is able to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine.

And here's the thing. Sometimes our response to an overwhelming

request from God, as we read in Daniel chapter nine,

verse twenty three, for you are greatly beloved. Therefore, consider

the matter and understand the vision. If God gives you

a vision for something, and not necessarily talking about a

vision for life, you might have a vision for life,

but you might just have a vision for today. What

does God want me to do today? God wants me

to rest today. Has anybody ever had that vision? It's

a great vision to have. God wants me to rest today. Please,

I want to give you a moment and a permission

to realize that having rest is not doing nothing. You

might say, well, that's obviously, having a rest is not

doing nothing. I've had a few days when I've actually

literally had a rest and tried not to do much.

You know, obviously you do some things. You got to eat,

I mean, unless you're fasting, I guess. But you get

to the end of the day and somebody the following

day says, hy, what did you do yesterday? And what's

my answer? Nothing? Actually, my answer should have been I rested.

Resting's okay. We live in such a busy world. We

feel guilty when we don't do things, and sometimes God says,

I just want you to Can you just spend some

time with me? I think it's part of the I

think one of the reasons we struggle in prayer is

because we struggle to rest, you know, And if we

can't rest, then our bodies are saying, well, I've got

to be doing something. And some people, some of you,

are like this. When you pray, you get up and

you walk around. That's okay. But I know that I

talk with my hands, and I won't illustrate this today.

But if I was teaching a room full of students,

I would say, okay, let me illustrate, and I'd literally

sit on my hands, and I sit on my hands,

and eventually I'd start articulating what I was saying with

my head because I was sitting on my hands, you know.

And so to be still it's a challenge for me.

Julia will sit and watch the television with me, and

she'll have a pillow between her eyes and my feet

because my feet are always moving even when I'm watching

the television. You probably don't believe me, but there you go.

It's true. It is true. I have got a little better, possibly,

but who knows. Here's the honesty. Daniel was being asked

by God to do some amazing, incredible things, and the

first thing he did was what me. And then the

next thing he fell sick. He was sick for a

few days. We read that in Daniel eight verses seventeen

and eighteen. Daniel felt drained. He felt completely washed out.

Here's the thing. If God's called you to do something,

you're his plan A. You're his plan A. He's still

got a plan, and sometimes you'll have to revert to

his plan B using a different person, but the plan

will still be outworked. This plan will still be outworked.

In Haberkuk chapter two, verses two and three, it says this,

Then the Lord answered me and said, write the vision

and make it plain on tablet that he who runs

that he may run who reads it. For the vision

is yet for an appointed time. Set down things right.

If God says something to you, write it down. If

you've got a prophetic word that you're walking through, write

it down. One Timothy one to seventeen says Wager, good

warfare with the prophetic words spoken over you. Now, let

me just explore that just for a few moments. It's

not the it's not in the slights. But do you

know what do we need to remind God what he said?

I don't think we need to remind God. For God's sake,

we need to remind us. We need to say remind God.

We know what he said, and we call out different things.

So if God said something to you at some point

in your life and you're still working that through, keep

on reading out. Share it with a few people, Share

it with a few faithful people. Say I'm still working

through this bit. This loose end is still to be completed.

The headline of what we're doing the season that we

find ourselves in the provision that God brings. Daniel does

not pretend that he has it all figured out. He

just starts. One of my favorite books, The Hobbit, starts

off with saying and it's also a Chinese proverb that says,

every journey starts with the first step. It's much easier

to steer something when you're pushing it. If you ever

want to test when you're actually moving. If you ever

want to test this, go and get a trolley from

outside Tesco's or Iceland or whatever your preferred supermarket is

and try and steer it without moving. It's hard work,

but you know what, if you start moving, then you

can start steering. Same If if some of you remember

before power steering was around, if you had to turn

the car, it was like hard work to be had

to turn that wheel. Now we have power steering, you

can just win. You know, you put your finger in

there and almost do that. You know. So, if God

asks you to do something for the first time, if

God's asking you to do something that requires faith, great

Sometimes God asked us to do things that are way

beyond our imagination. I'd just like you to imagine. I

know a couple of people who have been in these

kind of situations when God has said I want you

to give a million pounds away. You think I don't have.

I've never earned a million pounds, let alone seen a

million pounds. What does a million pounds look like? I

don't know. If we had a palette full of five

pound notes, how many? How big would it be? Anybody

got an idea? You know when you see in those

those gangster movies when people come up with us a

suitcase full of money. How much money would your suitcase carries?

Anybody got any ideas? Is it one thousand pounds? Is

ten thousand pounds? Could you get a million pounds in

a briefcase? I don't know. I have no idea what

a million pounds looks like. All I can tell you

is he's got six zeros after it. That's as far

as I can go. So when God asks us to

do something that's way beyond that which we ask or imagine,

the first thing we've got to do is acknowledge what

it is. What is God asking us to do? Say yes,

I hear, I hear what you're saying, God, Because sometimes

I don't know what your children are like. I don't

know what you were like as a child, but sometimes

when you didn't want to hear something, you'd put your

fingers in your ears and go, no, no, no, nah,

Now I don't want to hear. I'm sure nobody in

this room ever does that anymore, do they? But you

know what, sometimes I'm sure we do it with God.

We almost want to stick our fingers in our rows

and say, I can't do this. I don't want to hear.

I don't even want to hear you're asking. Because so

the first thing, and here's the thing. You have you

ever spoken to someone and they don't seem to be listening,

You've probably you've probably done it. I know I've done

it from time to time you uh huh, h uh huh.

And then somebody says, what did I just say, Dave?

Oh you know, I was away somewhere else thinking about

something else. You've probably done it. Repeat back to me

what I just said. Okay, that's what we need to

do with God. Sometimes, God, I think you're saying this.

And actually, if you ever want a tactic, let me

give you a bit of a lesson here. If you

ever want a tactic when you don't know how to

answer a question, give your brain some time and repeat

the question back to the person who's asking you. In

those ten seconds where you say, I think you're asking

me this? Is that correct? In that three four five seconds,

you've given your brain enough time to start to formulate

the answer. You can do the same thing. We got.

It works. We got to Yeah, just God, I think

you're asking me to do? Is that right? And when

he's m yes, that's right. Okay, Now we've heard, and

God knows we've heard. Now we're into prayer because we're

talking to God. That's what prayer is. We're talking to God.

We're talking and listening. Please let me remind you prayer

is not just talking at God. He's talking to God

and listening. So first thing we say, yes, we hear

you God. The next thing we say is, Lord, I

don't have what I need. That's an acknowledgment that we're

in a moment of faith. We're not doing it in

our own strength, We're not doing on our own ability. We're saying,

this is all I have. What did the disciples do

when Jesus sat down with the five thousand plus people,

he said, let's sit down there, obviously hungry, it's been

a busy day. And then he said to the disciples,

go and find out what people have got, and they

came back saying, only five loaves and two fish. An acknowledgment,

here's what we have. God, You're going to have to

do the rest, whether that's money, whether that's skill, whether

that's filling out a form. Anybody had to fill out

a complicated form in the last six months. Yeah, we

all have to do it from time to time. And

sometimes you get halfway through and think, oh, I can't

do this, I give up now. If it's for a

God purpose, persevere. Please do not think that God can't

help you in an application process. God can drop into

your head something that is exactly the right thing to

answer that kind of question, he asked me. And I

know it's quoted me a couple of times when I've

said I've got up in the morning, I've got too

many things to do in the day. It's impossible to

do it. I remember, particularly getting up one day and

I had three presentations to write in one day. Presentation

would probably normally take about three hours. That's nine hours

of work plus a whole bunch of other stuff. I

wake up and I just look at my day and say, God,

this is impossible. I can't do it. I felt him

say it's okay, Dave, it's all right, and so I'm

kind of leave it in your hands. By eleven o'clock,

one person wrung up and canceled the need for the presentation.

One off somebody else has sent me, Dave. I was

thinking about you. Here's something that might interest you. Half

my presentation already given to me. You know now an

hour and it's four hours. I could do that. So

here's here's the thing. Whatever your day contains, just look

at your day and say, Lord, do you know where

the gaps are? You know what I have, you know

what I don't have. Here's my five loaves and two fish.

You're going to have to do the rest. Yeah, if

we're on God's path, then he has to do the rest.

Because it's his word, it's his it's what he's calling

you to. In Isaiah sixty five, verse twenty four, because

I want to say, when we pray, the answer is

already on its way. This is exactly what God says,

before they call, I will answer. It will come to

pass that before they call, I will answer, and whilst

they are still speaking, I will hear. There have been

times and moments in my life when some funding is required,

or something's required, and I pray, and then the following day.

Clem's had similar situations. A letter has arrived or something

has arrived, And if you work it out logically, you know,

the first class does not mean next day anymore, does it?

But you know there are times when I've prayed and

I've realized that the post was sent before I prayed.

Before you know, this is exactly this scripture, before they

even prayed, I will answer. God knows he understands all

we're doing is aligning ourselves and that with His purposes.

And then he's saying, see, I'm ahead of you. I'm

gone before you. I've gone before you. And you know,

I don't know how many people have met angels or

since they've met angels, but you know, I think angels

are a powerful prophetic expression of God wanting to be

at work on earth. In Daniel, chapter nine, verses twenty

four to twenty seven, just let me read this to you.

Seventy weeks was determined for your people and for your

holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end

of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in

everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to

anoint the most Holy. Know therefore and understand that from

the going forth of the command to restore and build

Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there will be seven weeks

and sixty two weeks the street will be built again,

and the wall even in the troublesome times. And after

sixty two weeks Messiah will be cut off, but not

for himself and the people of the Prince who is

to come, shall destroy the city and the sanctuary, and

the end of it shall be with a flood. Until

the end of the war, desolations will be determined, then

he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week.

But in the middle of the week he shall bring

an end to sacrifice, an offering, and on the wing

of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, even until

the consummation, which is determined, is poured out on the desolate.

You know, there's a picture that I could spend the

whole morning just unpacking. Here. All I want to say

is God spoke. God provided, God went before, and he

sent an angel to bring this story, an angel to

bring this his announcement, Gabriel. When Gabriel arrives, there's something

important being said. We know that in the Gospel of Luke,

the angel gabrielle you know, came to Zechariah and then

to Mary. Gabriel announces flesh and blood activity everything and

Daniel was straining to see coming to pass is also

reflected in the fullness of the cross and the empty tomb.

In Galatians chapter four, verse four, it says this, but

when the fullness of time has come, God sent forth

his son, born of a woman, born under the law.

God sent his son for you and for me, to

pay the price for us. So here's the thing. When

God speaks to us, does it drive us to our

knees because we don't have what we need? Because that's

what happened for Daniel. The word, the vision, what God

says to us drives us to our knees. And therefore

we pray. And we begin by praying, Lord, thank you

for asking me to do this. I am weak, but

you are strong. You're able to do immeasurably more than

we ask. Or imagine. My verse that I'm going to

close out that I hope you will all find useful

is in Matthew eleven, verse thirty, and it says his

yoke is easy and his burden is light. When we

have to pull on something, when we have to do

something in our own strength, sometimes I can't do this.

You've heard me tell this story before, but it's good

to repeat some stories again when they're relevant. A friend

of mine who's a pastor in North America, just across

the American Canadian border in North America, he was out

working on his car, and he's a mechanic. He loved

working on his car. He's under his car and he

had his car up on Jack's And I want you

to imagine the typical kind of American scene, you know,

big garden. The neighbors are there, but they're quite a

distance away because they've all got big gardens and big lawns.

Out there working on his drive, pulling on this stubborn

bolt under the car, and he's pulling it with a

leavid spanner, and he's pulling out and pulling it. The

car starts to wobble, the car falls off. The Jackson's

on his chest. He's lying underneath the car, screaming out

to his wife and screaming out to anybody that will

hear him. Help, Help, Help. Now his wife is she's

just over five foot, little lady, and she came out.

Of course, she gets her hands under the wheel arches.

He tried, no chance of moving anything, but he senses

even as she just kind of does what she can

do a little easy. He says, keep on trying, love,

keep on trying love. Anyway. She then cries out and says,

God help me. She said, I do not know whether

God gave me supernatural power or whether an angel came

along and helped lift the car. But the car moved

enough that my husband was able to roll out from

underneath the car, and the car fell to the ground.

He had a bruise on his chest, he had a

bruise on his back, no broken ribs at all. When

we cry out to God in moments like that, God

meets us in our need. God meets us as we

cry out. And so I want to give you four

steps to think about. Four things to think about. I

think it's just before that slide, Thanks John. Four things

to think about when we're overwhelmed by what God is

asking us to do. And I want you to think

about this very specifically. Now, I'd like you to think

about we're here in the middle of August, heading towards

the autumn. Just think about the rest of this year.

There might be something God's got for you to do tomorrow.

There might be something that God's got to do for

between now and the end of the year. There might

be something that God wants you to get ready for

next year. I don't know what that is, but you

just sense God's been whispering in your ear, and you

just say, God, that's too big for me. Some of

you almost put it on the shelf and say too big.

I'll come back to that later. I sense, for one

or two God is actually saying yeah, it's too big,

but I want to remind you now, and so here's

the four things. The first thing is to acknowledge the

burden he's brought to you. You know, just like that

lady tried to pick up that car. Okay, it's impossible

that you can carry it, but with God's help you will.

So acknowledge there is a burden, there's something that His

burden is easy, his load is light. And then ask

for a touch from him, a touch from him. And

that might be logical, that might be creative, that might

be physical, that might be financial, that might be lining

you up with the right people. But God lines you

up with those things. Then pray that you receive his peace,

because you know what, we can waste so much energy,

so much time, so much mind space worrying about I've

got a student right now, and I won't give you

too much detail here, but this is a student who

has procrastinated for months and months and months and months,

and every time I address yes, you need to move

forward one step, she goes, yes, but yes, but yes,

but and all this list of other things I said,

just take one step, Just take one step, and you

will have moved. And then you will you know if

you take one step every day, seven days later, you're

seven steps further forward. What's who was the famous person

who said, you know, if you want to, if you

want to empathize with people, walk a mile in their shoes.

It's the thing. If you work that out logically, if

you walk a mile in their shoes, at the end

of the week, you're seven miles away from where you

used to be. It's got to be better than where

you were standing there thinking about doing something. Receive his peace,

be at peace with what God's asking you to do,

and then accept whatever He needs to give you, whether

it's finance, whether it's strength, whether it's resources. Acknowledge, ask, receive,

and accept. That's my challenge to you today, and so

I'm going to ask you. I'm going to close my

eyes and for those people who are listening online, those

who are listening later, just want to ask, what is

God asking you to do. I'm not going to ask

about that. That's between you and God. But I want you,

just this morning, maybe just to acknowledge there's something God's

asking you to do that's immeasurably more than you can

even believe for. But you know, he's asking you. You're

just saying, Father, I hear you. I'd ask you to

stand right now. I'd ask you to stand right now.

God's just asking. It might be tomorrow, it might be

next week, it might be next month, might be next year,

but it starts with that first step. Lord, I hear you, Lord,

I hear you. This is a faith moment. Here's a

faith moment. You say, I hear you, Lord, and it's

still impossible. Nothing's really changed. But I'm telling you, I'm

hearing you. I'm listening, and I'm understanding, and then listening

and understanding, I'm acknowledging that what I have is here,

all I have is this, And so Father, I'm just

going to give a few more moments anybody else who

wants to stand, and then I'm going to pray for

all those who are standing. Father, we stand before you

right now. I'm standing too, and we acknowledge. Lord. Some

of what you're asking just seems impossible. But Lord, we

start by saying, we hear you, Lord, we hear what

you're saying. And Lord, for some of you may even

need to repeat back to God what you think he said.

Leave that between you and God. But just tell him,

give yourself time and talk it out with him. If

he took it out with a wife or husband, someone

you trust, just say, look, this is the journey I'm on.

This is where God's going to have to fill the gap.

This is where he's going to have to fill up

my tank. He's where he's going to have to fill

my head with creativity and with his resources. So Lord,

we stand in your presence and we say, yes, Lord,

we've heard you. We acknowledge our need and we need

with your provision. Lord, this is a moment of faith.

And so Father, would you give us right now your peace?

Would you give us the peace that we're on the

right track. Would you give us peace that we've heard you.

Would you give us the peace to know and to

understand that you love us, You're with us, and you're

for us. That's why you've asked us. We are the

safe pair of hands for this activity, for this choice,

for this moment, your plan, for this time, for this conversation,

for this person coming to Christ, for this project to

be launched, for this child to be birthed, for this

life to be released, for this company to be launched,

for this idea to be manifest. We say yes, Lord,

and Amen, let it be Let it be let it

be let it be Let it be. I pray, and

as we receive your piece, we will rest in knowing

that it's your calling, so it's your bill. Lord. We're

not going to strive over worrying about it. We're going

to rest in peace and continue to live in the

fullness of who we are in you, as you called

us to be, and to do what you've called us

to be and to do in Jesus' name. Amen,