#Praying in the in Between

And I'm so grateful for Jesus, so grateful for his promise and

his goodness to us. And you know, the Psalm and what

we see there, that picture of his abundance and and his

goodness for us is actually really the grounding of this new

series that we're going to press into pressing in and pressing

on. And, and as I was sat preparing,

I was thinking, Oh Lord, people are going to be like, she's

getting up there and be like, come on, guys, we've got to

press on and press in and keep going.

But this is the truth. We are pressing in and on to

someone in this season. This isn't about us putting on

our big girl pants as a church and being like we can do this.

It is about pressing in and on to the person of Jesus, Father,

Son, and Holy Spirit, the one who prepares a table for us for

this season. And so we're going to be digging

into a new series as a church that is all about how we press

in and press on to Jesus. Ultimately, this series is about

prayer because that is how we engage with Him.

It's how we talk to Him, it's how we hear from Him, it's how

we receive the goodness of who He is that transforms how we

feel and what we see and what we do.

And so we are going to be looking at prayer over the next

6-7 weeks because I believe the Lord wants to do something in us

in this moment in time, in this part of our journey.

He is alive and active and He doesn't go on standstill in the

in between. He has got something for us that

he wants to do in us in this time.

And so I want us to look at, we're going to look at the

scripture. I'm going to pray.

Spirit of the living God, I thank you that you're present

and I thank you that you illuminate your truth in the

Word. And God, we want to say that

we're open right now to hear from you and what you want to

speak to us this morning in Jesus name, Amen.

Amen. Wonderful.

As Eduardo would like to say, he's becoming a legend in this

place for his wonderful. Great.

Well, if you have a Bible on you, I would love you to turn

this morning to Genesis 26. We're going to look at a

Scripture, which may feel like a little bit of a funny story.

You'll probably think to start with Clara, where are we going?

But we are not the first group of people in history to find

ourselves in the in between. In fact, throughout the Bible,

we find groups of people who are walking these kind of in between

seasons. We recognise in our own lives.

We walk through transition and change and in between seasons.

And so I was drawn to this story in Genesis 26 this morning, and

I want us to to read a little part of it first and then we're

going to tuck into it. So verse 17, it says this.

So Isaac departed from there and encamped in the valley of Gora

and settled there. And Isaac dug again the wells of

water that had been dug in the days of Abraham his father,

which the Philistines had stopped after the stopped up

after the death of Abraham. And he gave them the names that

his father had given them. But when Isaac's servants dug in

the valley, they found a well of spring water.

The herdsman of Guerra quarrelled with Isaac's

herdsman, saying, this water is ours.

So he named that well esque, which means contention.

And then they dug another well, and they quarrelled over that

one also. And he named it Sitna, which

means accusation. And he moved from there, and he

dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it.

So he called his name, Rehoboth, saying, For now the Lord has

made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.

From there he went to Bathsheba. And the Lord appeared to him the

same night and said, I am the God of Abraham your father.

Fear not, for I am with you, and I will bless you, and I will

multiply your offspring for your servant Abraham's sake.

So he built an altar there, and he called upon the name of the

Lord and pitched his tent there. And there Isaac's servants dug a

well. What we've got going on here in

the beginning of this portion is Isaac.

We've got this guy Isaac, and he stands between his father

Abraham's legacy. Abraham was the pioneer and

Jacob who comes after Isaac, who is a nation builder.

Jacob's sons became the tribes of Israel and they expanded and

we see this huge nation building.

But here we've got Isaac who's standing in the in between.

And Isaac gives us a picture of what generational batten to

batten, faithfulness and spiritual stewardship looks like

in the middle. But what is Isaac doing here?

It's a bit of an odd scripture, you might think, to pick that

He's digging wells and he's digging wells because in their

time, they needed living water. It was the most valuable thing

that they needed to thrive and survive.

And what we see to start with is Isaac going back and revisiting

and digging the wells that Abraham had opened, but that

even in the face of resistance where they had been shut down.

And he's trying to dig them again and they're being

contended for and they're being, he's being receiving accusation.

He just keeps going and he's contending for the fresh water

in the present. And it got me thinking about how

poignant that imagery is for us now here in the in between of

our story. You know, we have at Verso this

rich history of kind of 36 ish years, 3737.

Thanks, Richard. 37 years since we began, and we've got

incredible wells that have been dug in this place.

Wells of passionate worship, intimate worship, wells of

digging into the Word of God and letting it transform us.

We've got wells of faithful prayer that have gone through

all of those years. Even this week I was hearing

stories of just the Super faithful people.

They're not on the stage. Most of us won't even know

they've been doing it, but they've been showing up day in

and day out praying for us at the church.

We've got wells of compassion, right?

We've seen Versa Care grow from a from a tiny box in the car

park to what it is here today, reaching hundreds of people

every week with the compassion of Jesus.

We've seen wells of the power of God in this place that break

out, and we've seen many, many hundreds of stories of healing.

We've got wells of hospitality and making spaces where people

come and belong and are known. We've got sites that are

extending our reach to places so that we can extend who Jesus is

into those places too. We've got wells of unbelievable

courage, of discipleship, of mission, and all of those wells

have done what they've ultimately allow us to

experience, the Living water Jesus.

And in doing so, we're opening up spaces for others to

encounter him and taste and see just how good he is.

And in our own lives, if we think about it, each one of us

will have unique wells that the Lord has caused us to dig.

Now, some of us are intercessors in the room, or some of us are

great businessmen because we dig because of what God has done in

us to ensure that Jesus can be made known everywhere, anywhere,

at all times. And as I was sat in the story, I

was reminded that God wants to whisper to us this morning,

Birth. Save in your church to not

forget the wells that he's given us to dig in this place in this

moment. Do not sit back.

Do not think be tempted. Well, this is a nice break for

the next three months, four months.

I want to encourage us here on our first Sunday of this in

between, to keep stewarding and tending the wells that the Lord

has given us to dig in this place, to actively step in, to

not be passive in this moment. But there is fresh water that we

need to contend for this month, in October, in November, in

December. The Lord wants to make himself

known to us in this place. And what we're going to see as

we unpack this story this morning is that the God meets

those who have a shovel in their hand to keep digging, and he's

stepping into the water. Not quite yet, Fred, not quite

yet. She's she's on point for a

special moment. You know, it actually reminded

me of preaching here almost two years ago at the story of the

crossing of the Jordan. And I spoke about that holiness

the night before holiness moment.

If you were here, you might remember it.

And as the Lord led his people, he invites them to step into the

water under his presence and see what He will do.

And it reminded me again, like this is a bit of that moment.

We need to keep digging the wells of His presence in this

place because we're going to step into the water and watch

what He's going to do in this next chapter.

He's preparing us first, though, in this moment, not passively,

but actively. And we all need to pick up our

shovels and be a part of it. But the well that I think the

Lord has really been speaking to us about that he wants to to

really dig in US in this season is the well of prayer.

And I know when I say that there's some of us because I've

been there and done this. Oh, here we go.

We're going to have a six week series on how we all need to

pray more. And there's a little bit of, you

know, a little bit of like, oh, this, I'm just going to feel

guilty at the end of it that I just don't do prayer enough.

I just want to rebuke that lie in this room in the name of

Jesus. OK.

This is not about a series that we're going to feel guilty on.

It is about a series that is going to awaken us this morning.

Amen. It's going to awaken us in this,

in this moment, because I believe that God wants to not

just make us more intelligent or knowledgeable about prayer.

I think he wants to form something in us.

He wants to form us as a people, that of prayer that it is

essentially in us as we reclaim and stand firm on the

foundations that have been in our story thus far.

And we press into Jesus for the now as we ultimately stand in

faith, believing for what is to come because the best is yet to

come. Now let's look a little bit

closely closer here because you might be thinking, well, Claire,

this was an awful lot in here about people like contending

against Isaac as he's digging these wells.

And you know, this season of transition and change for us as

a church has not been birthed out of something going wrong.

Hallelujah, praise Jesus, right? This is not because we've got a

leader that did something bad and we've had to change leaders.

It is a it is a beautifully spirit filled stewardship of God

that he's unfolding a story in US, right?

And he has been so faithful in that from the beginning of the

Lord speaking to Mark and Steph like last year all the way

through. So kind, so kind in the way that

he's doing this story. But let's be honest, you know,

we can know that God is in this story.

We can know that he's good and he's he's doing his thing.

But we still face internal tensions, right?

Maybe it's just me. Like I can know God is in this

story. There's a little bit of anxiety

in me about how it's all going to unfold, right?

We can know he's good. We can know he's writing the

story. But we can in our humanness be

anxious in the unknown and the change because most humans don't

like change. We can know that God is the

leader of our church, that we're just the under shepherds, but we

can still slip into the temptations that would love to

convince us that somehow He's not on the throne in this

moment. And we need to do something to

try to control this internal tension that we experience.

We can slip into those temptations of nostalgia and

believe that the best is actually behind us.

Because who could be like the pastors that we've had before?

Surely they're not going to be as good as those guys.

We can slip into that comparison or disengagement or have a

jury's out guys not going to sit there and wait and see.

I don't know about this Chuck and Taran yet.

We'll see if they prove themselves to be as good as we

hope. God is the leader of this

church. He is writing a story and

therefore we don't need to hold any of those positions.

We can hold fast to a position that he is writing the story and

what he's bringing in this next season.

He's on it, and we are all part of it because you're here right

now, in this moment, and he's brought you here for a reason.

Let's get even more real. We face these internal tensions,

don't we? Accusations that come at us in

our discipleship when we know we're supposed to, you know,

read the Bible, man. Every time I try to read the

Bible, it's like something is trying to stop me.

Or we can know that we're supposed to pray or worship or

whatever it might be. And when we just don't quite

manage to do it in the way that we'd hoped or you thought we

were supposed to do, it doesn't the accuser love to just come

and shame us and tell us, well, don't bother trying again.

I mean, you've clearly shown you can't.

You can't, you can't get a grip of this.

Or as we look at our world right now, you know, we can know that

we know the end of the story. OK?

We know the end of the story verse over in your church in

this moment where the darkness feels like it's getting darker,

where the contention feels like it's rising, where the tension

in US is like what is going on, the cultural wars, The body of

Christ seems to be butting heads with one another.

Which side of this camp do I sit on?

And we can know that eternity is in God's hands and still have

this internal wrestle of how to walk out in this moment.

But I want us to notice something about Isaac.

How does he walk in that moment when he is facing the

contention, when he is facing accusation and he keeps going,

What does he do? He just keeps digging wells

because he knows that water is the only thing that will sustain

them and keep them alive. He doesn't get wound up.

He doesn't get angry. He just keeps digging and doing

the thing that God has shown them to do.

You know, it reminded me, actually, I have this funny

story. I like, you know, I got to the

summer and I used to be a runner.

I used to call myself a runner, ran 1/2 marathon, the Great

North Run. I know that's my little claim to

fame from years ago. And about two years ago, I did

something. I did a a race and I seriously

messed up my knee. Like seriously messed it up.

And I was like, in fact, Krista's in the room.

Krista Alexander was with me on that walk.

We did this hike up and down the South Downs and I really did

something awful to my knee. And so I gave up.

I was like, I'm not a runner anymore and I thought there's no

way I'm ever going to go back to running.

And I just gave into it and I missed that feeling of running.

I miss what that breakthrough moment where you clear your head

after a long run. And in this summer, I just heard

the Lord. Honestly, it was the Lord.

He said to me, what, why you stopped running?

And I was like, because I can't run because I've got this

injured knee and what, you haven't healed it.

So you know how my conversations with the Lord go and anyway, I

and I just him say, I just want you to try again.

And so I downloaded a couch to 5K and it's very demoralizing

when you've been able to run a half marathon to start at one

minute running, one minute walking, one minute running, one

minute walking. However I did, I thought, you

know what, I'm going to get the shoes to help with the knee and

do all the things. And I just started.

And the difference was I just felt him say to me, stop looking

at the whole plan and just do the day in front of you, do one

run at a time and take it one day at a time.

I was doing so well, loving it. And then this summer I was at

the beach with my boys and we're walking towards the ocean and

like a good mum, I was like messing with one of them and one

of them kicked her foot up just as they were laughing.

And they hit my foot really bad and injured it really badly.

And I was like, oh see, I'm not a runner, I'm not a runner,

What's the point? May as well give up.

And the Lord caught me in preparation for this.

And he said to me, Claire, how often do you treat your prayer

life like that? You give up because you

couldn't. You couldn't sustain the half an

hour that you thought you were supposed to pray on this thing.

And instead of just doing the next thing and taking it back up

and saying, you know what? Even though I've not done that,

I'm just going to pick it up again.

I'm just going to try again one day at a time.

Even if I have to go back to day one of one minute of running,

one minute of walking. I'm just going to keep trying

and deep digging because here's the deal.

The enemy's number one strategy in seasons of change and

transition and when we face opposition and resistance is to

do anything He can to distract us and disempower us and fill us

so much with disappointment that we fill up and we dry up the

wells that will give us the living water, the spaces that

allow us to encounter Jesus, the Father, the Son, and the Holy

Spirit. And we just need to understand

that our wells of prayer are going to be contended.

They are going to face opposition and we just need to

see it, need to name it, and we need to own it.

And we need to walk forward one day at a time, because it's in

those spaces of prayer that our uncertainty and fear fall in the

security of Jesus, our rock that we stand on.

It's in the spaces of prayer where our doubts and our hurts

are audaciously allowed to be made known to the most loving

Father who cares and invites us to come as we are and meet us

there and not leave us there to lead us forward, to be able to

give grace and love to those around us.

It's in the spaces of prayer that we can bring Him our

questions about our world. We can even dare to say, Jesus,

are you really enough in this moment?

It's the spaces of prayer where we take up our responsibility as

His bride, our faithful posture and position to stand firm in

the face of whatever is to come, knowing that we don't, as, as He

said this morning, fight against flesh and blood, but with Jesus,

who has a better word through the finished work of the cross,

we can keep believing, we can keep contending, we can keep

trying, because God's heart is there for the taking and we want

His heart for our world, for our lives, His expectation.

And we don't have to surrender anything less than a belief that

we will see His goodness in the land that we are living in, in

this hour right now, here in our church, in our city, in our

nation, and in our world, He will be made known for His

goodness. Amen.

And So what I want us to see here this morning is that prayer

through the Scripture, this imagery that we get through

Isaac is prayer requires persistence.

Prayer that will form us Verso, not just in kind of inform us

that will literally form us is intentional prayer.

It is costly. It's going to be hard work

because digging wells is hard work.

In fact, in the Scriptures when they were digging wells, it

literally took them years to keep digging and digging and

digging. Because prayer is ultimately an

act of humility, acknowledging God and who he is and taking our

rightful place and recognising that we can do nothing apart

from him. John 15.

And so this morning I, I'm going to this is my moment.

I brought a little prop. Steve's going to kill me.

I grabbed it out the garage. Sorry darling.

Prayer is hard work. We all have a shovel in our hand

in this room and what the Lord I believe wants to do in us in the

season is form prayer in US and this is what it looks like.

Every muscle in our being is required.

Prayer doesn't just drop in our lap.

It literally is like picking up a shovel and working our

muscles, our prayer muscles, day in and day out.

And what happens when you do strength training or you dig in

the garden repetitively? What happens to your muscles?

They change shape. It literally changes the form of

who we are. And I believe in the Spirit that

the Lord wants to do something in the next few months in us

around prayer that will shape us and form us to look different.

Literally our muscles will look different.

And some of us, you might be like, well, I can't pick up a

big shovel. Maybe it's a little shovel.

It doesn't matter what size the shovel is.

You just got to pick the shovel up.

And we're just going to dig one shovel at a time, one prayer at

a time. One time coming to a prayer

meeting, one time getting up at 6:00 in the morning to set your

alarm to pray. I don't care what it looks like,

but just pick up your shovel church and pray.

Amen. Amen.

Don't get the preacher going in this girl's morning.

And I want, so I want you to hear this prayer is persistent

and it's where we unstuck those inner tensions.

It's a life posture that we just keep using our muscles and we

keep pressing in. But the resistance in prayer is

not defeat or failure. It's confirmation that you're

doing the right thing. And so there's a question for us

in the room this morning. Where is God asking you to pray

more intentionally, repeatedly, consistently, wider, deeper,

longer for yourself and for the sake of others.

Now let's look a little bit further here.

What what happens next? Isaac he they press on and they

press on. And then what does it say?

It says that they came to a place where the spring flowed

and there was no quarrelling over it.

And he named it Rehoboth. Now if I'd been Isaac and I'd

been digging these wells and we suddenly had a breakthrough and

there was no one in opposition to me, I'd have been like,

Hallelujah, let's sit back and enjoy this moment of provision.

But what does Isaac do? He moves to where it says in

verse 23. He then went to Bathsheba.

Bathsheba. What is Bathsheba?

Well, Bathsheba is the place that Abraham had been in.

If you go back several chapters, he'd been digging a well there.

He'd come up against opposition and he'd made a covenant at

Bathsheba and he planted a tree and and it and in the name of

the Lord everlasting God. And suddenly Isaac has seen this

provision Rehoboth a place where they could be fruitful.

And he doesn't stay there. He goes to Bathsheba.

And what happens in Bathsheba? It says that the Lord appeared

to him that same night. And he says that I am the God of

Abraham, your father. Fear not, for I am with you, and

I will bless you, and I will multiply your offspring for my

servant Abraham's sake. In our church life right now, we

have seen the provision of God in our story in so many ways.

But at this particular time, we've seen His provision in

bringing Chuck and Taryn to us in January.

We've seen His provision in lots of different ways, in the ways

that you guys are all stepping up and taking your place and

being faithful. But I think the Lord would say

to us this morning, it's time to move to Bathsheba, the place of

presence, to pursue his presence.

Isaac was not satisfied with just provision.

He moved into Bathsheba, a place of presence where God spoke to

him and said that I am God, I'm the God of your father and I'm

your God. Fear not, but I'm with you.

And He reminds them of the fruitfulness that is to come

1st. So that is the Lord's heart for

us this morning, that we would remember that He is our leader.

He is with us, we have nothing to fear.

And He is writing a beautiful story of fruitfulness in our

midst. And He's inviting us afresh this

morning to move into His presence.

And then what happens? It says that Isaac, I love this,

Isaac's response, he's come into the presence of God and he's

then it says he built an altar there and he called upon the

name of the Lord, and he pitched his tent there and there Isaac's

servants dug a well. Isaac's response in the presence

of God was to build an altar. An altar is an ultimate

declaration of surrender and worship.

It's the beautiful place that we get to come as we are this

morning. Why?

Because of the covenant relationship established through

the work of the cross in Jesus. Just as Isaac moved back into

the place where Abraham had established a covenant that

ended the opposition, we have The opposition has been ended in

the name and the blood of Jesus. Amen.

And so we get to move into his presence and bring all that we

are and know there is a solution for it.

It's our way of saying, yes, you are God and I am not.

And I will worship you today not based on how I feel, but the

reality of who you are because this season belongs to you.

Worship anchors us in uncertainty.

Altars lay down our need for control, our need to be right.

They're the place where we say your God.

And would you speak to me? Would you help me listen?

I've been so challenged on this in in the things that are going

on in our world. Our world is full of opinions in

this hour and over the last few weeks.

I just heard the Lord say, Claire, come talk to me about

it. Don't jump on social media.

Don't Give your opinion. Come and talk to me.

Let me shape you because revival starts in here 1st And then what

does Isaac do? He calls on the name of the

Lord. This is our time to call on the

name of the Word to stand in intercessory prayer versus

church family for one another, for our city, for Hemel and

Hatfield, for this nation, for our world, so that we are marked

by Him and we receive from Him. How to pray, what to pray?

How to stand in this gap? We've got a quiet revival

breaking out. The light is shining brightly as

the darkness gets darker. And our posture as the bride of

Christ is to know that we stand on the authority of ours in

Christ Jesus and to hold the gap that we will see more and more

people coming to experience His presence and His love.

But it's our hour versa, to run to His presence and to call on

His name and to be formed by who he is in that space.

But I love this third one. It says he pictures a tent.

What was the tent in Isaac's day?

It was the place that they gathered together.

The families dwelt together. It was the place that they were

rooted. Even in their transient life,

they were rooted in that tent. They stayed present to one

another. And this is our reminder.

It's not just about praying on your own.

It's about gathering together. I want to call us in the season

to show up in our corporate spaces, in our groups in the

week, in our prayer spaces, in our Sunday meetings.

We are all needed in this place because when we come together,

we bring what we've had in the secret place and we bring it and

we remind one another of who we are in Christ Jesus.

And we can stand as one in this place to contend for his

presence, to stand up against opposition in our lives, to be

stand arm in arm and say, you know what, it was a tough week,

but I'm here to remind you that Jesus is enough.

He is enough. And then what I love is this.

They dig another as they come into the presence, as they

encounter God and reminded who he is and who they are and they

do it together. They are empowered to dig again.

And I just felt like the Lord say, call the church to pray, to

call on his name to gather and pitch our tent in this hour

because we are going to start digging new wells in our future

that are going to bring even more fruitfulness, even more of

the Kingdom into the here and the not yet.

And he's preparing us in this hour.

And prayer is not the prelude. It is the process of which we

are formed. And he will mark us.

I believe in this time around prayer in a way that we will

keep praying. It's not going to be like, let's

pray till January. We give up.

No, he's going to change something in us in our posture.

And so this is my question for you today, my challenge.

You can listen to a talk like this and give me all the amens

you want in this room. I love it.

I love it. I love a good Amen.

Thanks, Elizabeth. But you need to pick up your

shovel, every one of us. And so picking up your shovel,

what does it look like this week if you're in this room and you

don't even know Jesus and you're like, what is this girl talking

about? I didn't know shovels were part

of Jesus. I want to dare you.

If you've never met Jesus in this room, I want you to talk to

him this week like, like he's real.

I dare you to. If you don't know whether you

believe in Him or not, just start talking to Jesus like He's

real this week and see what He does in your life.

But some of us in this room need to hear this and hear my heart.

Like I get it. I'm preaching to myself this

morning. Our lives are busy, but what is

it going to look like this week? Maybe it's that you're going to

take your group time. Maybe as a group you're going to

pray together once a month for the next few months.

Maybe it's, as I said, you're going to set your alarm one, one

day, just one day this week at 6:00 in the morning.

If you get up at 7:00 and you're going to say, God, I'm here, I'm

going to pray. Maybe you're going to log on to

space online this week at lunchtime in your business

workplace, headphones in and you're going to give your lunch.

Just pray with us, the church. Maybe you're going to join the

faithful group Prayer hour. Guys, this group has been

praying faithfully for years in our midst.

Go find them. Go find John and Penny and

others and and find out how you can be on that group.

It might not be your style. It might feel slightly

uncomfortable. That is OK Prayer isn't all

about how it feels, it is about showing up and doing it anyway.

And we're also we've got so many spaces and I've probably

forgotten them. Please don't be offended if I've

not mentioned your particular space that we pray.

There are so many in this building.

But I just like, seriously, right now think about your week.

How are you going to step up and pick up your shovel to pray

wider and deeper and longer this week in a new way, Every single

one of us Think about it. The Lord meets those who pick up

their shovel and that he wants to form in us a new hunger for

His presence as he prepares us for what's ahead.

And we're going to look over the next few weeks at the different

ways we can get like stronger using our muscles all the

different ways we can pray in different seasons.

We've got amazing speakers coming to unpack that.

I could not be more excited about what God's going to do in

our midst. And finally, we, we with this

kind of in our, this sense of the Lord around wanting to form

us around prayer. I'm really excited to share that

we're also opening up a new space in our midst to engage in

prayer room. And there are going to be more

details about this coming. But in the within the next few

weeks, we're going to be opening a prayer room in this building,

a permanent space. Well, we can come in to pray and

that isn't going to be the place where we come and get prayer

ministry. We've got a prayer ministry team

that does that stuff. This room is going to be

dedicated space to minister to the ward and to stand in

intercession for for us as a church for the people in Saint

Albans and Hatfield and Hemel, for this nation and for the

nations of the world because we believe that God is calling us

on this journey of prayer and we want to respond with a

resounding yes. Amen.

Amen. Let's stand church.