Teach us to Pray - Part 8

If you have your Bible with you, I'd love for you to turn to the

book of James. We're going to be in James this

morning. It's right near the end of your

Bible, just after Hebrews. If you reach the maps, you've

gone too far. Come on back, James chapter 1.

James 1 · chapter mention

Like so you can see we are doing a series called Teach Us to

Pray. And I think this morning we're

going to look at Teach Us What to pray.

I love this backdrop because it's important that you

understand who it is that we get to pray to and what it is that

he's able to do. And then James chapter 1 and

James 1 · chapter mention

verse 5, you can underline this. It says if any of you lacks

wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without

finding fault, and it will be given to you.

Your there's there's one three letter word in there that has

really bothered me this week. If any of you lacks wisdom, you

should ask God, not your neighbor.

Ask God, the creator of the heavens and the earth, the one

who put the sun, a ball of nuclear fusion in the sky.

I don't know if you know this, but you can put 1.2 + 1,000,000

planet earths in that little sky.

That little sun 1.2 + 1,000,000 earths of nuclear fusion all

there because God said light be and he says if any of you lack

wisdom, I can help. I mean he's he's the God who who

created this light that captivates me.

I don't know if you know this, but astrophysicists say I'm sure

you do a lot of reading on the material published by

astrophysicists. One that I found fascinating was

when the Hubble telescope was launched back in the 1990s, they

say what they discovered through that process in terms of their

understanding of light, the guy says essentially, if what we

knew was one piano worth of information said now on the back

of this Hubble telescope launch, that piano needs to stretch

around the entire equator, the earth of what we've discovered.

I mean, who knew God? I don't know if you know this,

but they take spectroscopes and they look at planets that are

billions of light years away, and they can tell with

specificity what gases are in that atmosphere and what

materials are on the surface of that planet because of the

understanding of light. Who knew what God knew?

I mean, this is the same God who invented time, created sound.

He created the female brain. He is gone where no man has gone

before. And in some instance, no, no

woman either. He created that with

understanding. I'm going to get behind that.

If my if a friend of mine. Chris, I don't know if you know

Chris Smith, you need to know him. 10 distinctions in the

trick, including 100% for mathematics.

Yeah, I taught him well. But if I had to ask Chris,

listen, I want to understand. Chris, can you tell me why is it

that the accurate artery and the interlobular arteries weren't

able to sustain the renal pyramids within my daughter's

kidneys and LED to her kidney failure?

Chris, can you tell me why I'd get just as blank a stair as I

am from you if I had to ask Chris?

Who's going to win the American elections, Chris?

What's it going to mean to Stalwart, to Sebanya's mines and

their minerals and the value of the Rand of the dollar?

Can you tell me, Chris? Chris, can you help me?

Because I've been waiting for this Hazel Dean project to be,

well, the grounds will be broken because we've heard rumours that

the halt train is going to be having a station there within

two years time, coming right underneath our land.

And when that happens, they're also going to build a freeway

that's going to divide the property of three CR in half.

Chris, can you tell me is that going to happen?

Can you tell me what are the boardroom discussions when it

comes to these things that are going to have massive

ramifications for this church and our ministry and our impact

in the city? Can you help me, Chris?

What's going on in those boardrooms or those bedrooms?

Which is why the Bible says, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him

ask God, who knows? I don't know if you know this,

but in Second Kings, there's a moment where the king of Aram is

busy attacking the nation of Israel.

And so he comes around the northern perimeter, and all of a

sudden Israel's there with their army.

And so he tries to flank them. And lo and behold, there's the

army and he does this nut it actually says in 2 Kings chapter

2 Kings 6 · chapter mention

6 it says this enraged the king of Aram.

He summoned his officers and demanded of them tell me which

of us is on the side of the king of Israel?

None of us, my Lord, the king said one of his officers.

But Elisha tells the king of Israel the very words you speak

in your bedroom. So if God knows the how train

from the next president of the US and he does, and if God is

able to open doors that no man can shut and close doors that no

man can open, and he can. And if he invites you and I to

come and receive counsel, which he has, why is it that we

struggle to say those 3 little words?

Let us pray because he says if any of you lacks wisdom, you

should ask God who gives generously.

He doesn't say well I'll give you a clue.

It starts with P. No, he gives generously to all

without finding faults he doesn't like.

Well you didn't come yesterday, you didn't want to ask me if

there was snow in Fernando's past without faults and it will

be given to you. Why is it that we struggle to

say those 3 little words? Let us pray.

Heard the story of a teacher moved to the UK and she

discovered that British students or hooligans and she didn't know

what to do. She's like overwhelmed.

But what's sat in the class before her.

And so she said, God, you've got to come through.

You've got to give me wisdom. How do I reach my students?

How do I reach this generation? And she would pray every morning

driving in the car, she'd turn up the worship music real loud.

And she'll pray for those kids by name for each class, each

subject, praying for the the teachers that she worked with.

And she said this went on forever.

It just seemed like it wasn't getting through.

And she kept saying, but Lord, you said it will be given to

you. If I ask for wisdom, it will be

given to you. But I need wisdom.

And all he gave her was Isaiah 62, which says give God no rest.

Look it up. It's a wonderful promise.

He says, come, give me no rest. So every morning, every

lunchtime and tea time and after school, she would pray.

And all of a sudden, something began to shift.

At the beginning of this year, she tells the story of how one

of the kids, you know, everyone's sort of filing out.

One of the kids comes past and just out of the blue says,

ma'am, are you a Christian? And she's thrown, hey, because

you're not allowed to proselytize.

You're not allowed to mention your faith in British schools.

She's sort of like looking for microphones and hidden cameras.

She says, yes, yes, I am. Why do you ask?

Because we want to come to church with you.

She's like, no, that would be very inappropriate.

And where are these cameras? But they pitched, they came to

church. So she's telling the pastor,

she's like, listen, back row there, there's great nuns.

They're all from my class. And then God touched them.

They had this incredible encounter with the heavenly.

Now the heavenly Father got radically saved, baptized.

And so she gave God no rest. Lord, what about the rest of my

grades? And she says my grade Elevens

then asked where I go to church as well.

I told them and one guy said Oh yeah, I'm worried about him.

Some of me friends started going there literally for no reason.

Like they're not religious or anything, but they said I should

come close trip. Yeah, they're literally going

for no reason other than one young lady gave God no rest.

One young lady said, Lord, you have said that if anyone lacks

wisdom, let them ask. And so I'm asking you knows the

end from the beginning, knows what they are going through,

knows what they need to hear and see.

And so I will give you no rest and I will trust that I'll be

given that. And there's this mini revival

happening in their classes. I had the most incredible

experience this week going through this press series.

It's gotten under the skin of many people, and particularly

among businessmen. And I had a group of young

businessmen come to me with a little bit of a predicament,

wanted some advice on this. Having heard of my business

background, they wanted to chat and so basically gave me the

premise of the problem. And part of it was

pharmaceutical issue related. And because that's way above my

pay grade, I said, well, listen, actually, I know someone with a

pharmaceutical background. He's a big hitter, big capacity

businessman in the city. But best of all, he's a a giant

of the faith. So would you like to sit with

him and bring your situation to him?

And they, of course, jumped at the opportunity.

So Monday we were in his beautiful, swanky corner office

laying this issue before him. And the back story is that this

business has been running for quite a few years, but young

businessman is their first company and they got radically

saved about a year and a half, two years ago.

And now they're looking at their business and their

infrastructure and everything like this.

And they're asking the question, how do I do this to glorify God?

How how do our business in a Kingdom way?

And so they've been changing some of their processes and some

of their stuff. And they came across something

that they discovered recently that one of the products that

they're selling, there's AI don't know the jargon, forgive

me for the pharmacists here, but essentially, like one of the

ingredients is now a scheduled medication.

And so you now need a prescription to get this product

that they're just putting on all the shelves.

And now they don't know what to do because if they continue with

this, it's essentially illegal. But they've got all the reasons

to continue because, you know, big pharma, they just wait to

find something that's really, really profitable.

Then they take it back from the little guy and the little guy's

business collapses. And they're also, they're really

on the brink of this is like the premier product that they're

selling. If we take it off the shelves,

what does it mean to us as a company?

But there are people that sell this.

There are families depending on income on selling this product

and it really is the backbone of the business.

So they're sitting there. My friend is just listening and

there's this moment of silence and he says, I don't know if you

know James one verse 5. This is says there, if anyone

lacks wisdom, which it seems like you do, you should ask God

who gives generously to all without finding fault and he

will give it to you. He says that's all you need to

do. And these guys, I was growing.

He says what you need to do is you need to go away this

weekend. He said take two or three days,

no cell phones, no laptops, no distractions.

And he said you go and pray. And this is was his advice.

A senior businessman who has seen God come through in the

most remarkable ways to them. And I say to you, he says you go

and you pray. You get on your knees, you

humble yourself before God and you hold this promise before

him. The Lord, you said, if we ask

for wisdom, you will give it to us.

Said you read the Bible and you wait.

Because when the the disciples were on the road to Emmaus, when

Jesus intersected them and said, didn't the word burn in our

hearts? I said, you read scripture until

something burns in your heart, he said, or if God drops the

Scripture in your mind, you know, go take a look.

Maybe there's something there. If it jumps off the page, if it

gets a hold of you, God is trying to get your attention.

And he said, and then you pray over that and you intercede on

behalf of your company and your business and your future around

this. Is it Because there are three

reasons why you want to do this. Firstly, this is a big, bold

decision that you are going to need to make and it's highly

likely you're going to have to sink that part of your business

and you need to remind yourself that God has spoken.

Secondly, this is where the the enemy loves to operate.

Oh, you're a man of God, man of faith.

Yeah. But you see, now you've got no

money to pay and now you've got to move in with your

mother-in-law. You know, clearly God does

another. You need that, that Scripture

and that promise because you need to put that in the enemy's

face and say no, no, no, God has spoken.

And thirdly, you need that because you got to get into

God's presence and say, God, you have spoken.

You said we need to let go of this.

You have given us this as an act of faith, an act of obedience,

as an outworking of the wisdom that we've been seeking for.

And you have said if anyone asks, you will give it.

Now you need to be. Yeah, sort of handle your side

of the the bargain. And then he told us a story.

He said he's not just namby pammy.

You know, here's something, use it, don't use it.

He said this is how God has built my business.

I mean, right back to the very beginning when he started, he

had his first pharmacy and he's telling the story of how the

rubber hit the road really early on.

But this was like 40 years ago. So his budget was something like

15,000 grand a month. And one of his clients pulled

out, they did the the medicine for a string of old age homes

and overnight he was going to lose 50% of his business.

This was like February and say the 1st of March, it was gone.

And he's like, Lord, this is going to sink me.

This is going to finish me. I've sold everything.

I've got this bond number, you know, like I do not know what to

do. I need wisdom.

And he got on his knees and he put into practice the very thing

that he was encouraging these young businessmen to do.

And he said out of the blue, you know, sort of praying for this

thing. Out of the blue, this guy walks

in and he says, listen, what? What are your facilities when it

comes to helping paraplegics? And so thinking that this was

like a family request, he said, listen, we're not really set up

for that because you need training.

You need facilities, you you really need access to certain

elements in the industry. So he's like, oh, we're not set

up. So he said, well, would you be

able to get yourself set up? And he's thinking like, I really

have an issue here. If you wouldn't mind.

You know, I can't afford to do staff training.

I can't afford to get this thing set up.

So he said to the guy, he said, listen, I'll go and I'll pray

about it. You know, which is you'll get

out of jail free card. As a Christian, you know, we're

praying for you. You never think of them again or

you send the praying emoji, which actually is 1/2 Father, I

don't know if you know that. So he says I'll go pray for you.

And so he's praying for this thing and God's like, hey, have

you thought of this? And he felt God say that is

actually the answer to this prayer.

So if I'm the guy back, he said, OK, did the training,

implemented the setup or whatever the case might be, not

knowing what this would mean, if there would be ones or twos or

maybe it's only this guy. And so he started getting, I

don't know what to call it, if it's business or customers or

clients or patients, but he started getting a lot of

requests from from those with paraplegic needs.

But he's still praying saying, Lord, I don't know if this is

everything that you're wanting to show me.

And then God point out, pointed out the catheters that these

guys needed because he was very surprised that they would order

100 or 200 catheters at a time. So he for all his patients was

ordering a thousands, thousands and thousands at a time.

And he said he was getting it saved for two Rand, 75 each and

selling them for three Rand. And then he thought, let me go

and see, maybe there's something to this because it just wouldn't

leave him. Now this was back in the day and

this was probably in the 80s. So he couldn't just go on team

and order like 50,000 catheters, you know, with a price tag

stapled onto it. So he well done.

Thank you for those who are awake.

So he did some research and he found in Germany he could import

them, he could land the catheters at $0.50 each.

And so he began to sell these catheters to his customers,

clients, patients for the same, but for the basically the

production rate at 275. And then he started distributing

them at 275. And he said one thing that led

to another and got his open doors and open doors and open

doors because he found that when I needed wisdom, I went to him

and he could trust me with this. And so in the meeting I've went

over and I said, so it was 15,000 Rand a month back then.

What is your business worth at the moment?

And he threw out some figures and my lower grade mathematics

sort of hit the ceiling when when we crossed the billion Rand

mark and kept on going. And so I turned to these young

men and I turned to you this morning.

I said, what you need to understand is the Bible says in

Luke 16, if if you are faithful with little, you will be

faithful with much. But if you're unfaithful with

little, you'll not be faithful, not be entrusted with much.

And it goes on to say this, it says, so if you have not been

faithful or trustworthy, and with these guys, all righteous

in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches,

See. And what they needed to see, and

what you and I need to see is that it's not a financial

moment. It's not a financial prayer that

you are praying. It's a faith thing.

It's a small thing. He talks there about worldly

wealth being a very little thing.

It's like God says this. He says, OK, I'm going to put

that down there. I want to see who do you run to?

Who do you trust? Where does your heart wander in

this little thing? Because I want to see if I'm

central in that decision and in that process, then I will

entrust much to you. And it doesn't say much worldly

wealth, it says true riches. And I said to these men, God is

waiting to see, will you be faithful with this?

Because he wants you to be faithful for generational

impact. I said what God is actually

putting is not this, but he's putting this gentleman who's in

the room here in front of you. That is the much will you

entrust God with this little thing so that he can entrust you

like he's entrusted this gentleman for generational

impact and influence. Because I said to them, your

marriage is either going to be taking strain or will flourish

under your faithfulness or lack thereof.

Some of them are married and that the guys are away.

Some of them and the wife and the wives are at home going like

yo, my man is asking my heavenly Father how to get through this.

I can trust him with my heart. Some have children and they're

seeing their fathers go away to inquire of their Heavenly

Father. And you've got to know that will

make an indelible imprint on their walk with the Heavenly

Father and his ways. And they will install this for

generations to come. And so when it says if any of

you lacks wisdom, it's not a small thing.

It's a generational nation shaping moment.

It looks so small to you that you might even overlook it.

But in God's heart, he's saying, if you can just learn my ways

here, boy, do I have something for you.

Why can I put you in that CEO corner office, head of States?

Boy, there's a presidency waiting for you because of what

I can do and what I can entrust to you.

And so he says, if any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask

God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it

will be given to you. But I want to go back to the

very beginning there. If any of you like wisdom, you

should ask God. I was reading through a

devotional in the you version and it said the following here.

I think we have the quote for the screen.

The problem with anxiety. Is it up there?

Yeah. The problem with anxiety, the

problem with the question that you're asking the the little is

that it narrows our perspective, allowing us to only see that

which is directly in front of us.

It magnifies the unknown in our lives and diminishes the

omnipotence of God. The problem with anxiety, the

problem with the little, it narrows your you only see your.

But this product and our sales staff and you know, I don't do

paraplegics. It narrows it down.

It magnifies the unknown. But what if we give up on this

business? What if I take that job in

bloom, Fontaine? Clearly God is speaking.

It magnifies the unknown and diminishes the omnipotence of

God. It makes an idol of your

decision and it says I know you're the creator of the sun.

But actually this is very important to me.

This deserves my under farted attention.

I'll get to you, just you just wait there.

But I just need to sort this out.

If you're taking notes, you probably don't have much.

James one verse 5. Good.

Add to that Genesis 37 to 47 in Genesis 37 all the way to

Genesis 47. It's the accounts of a guy named

Joseph. I'm sure you know the story.

Joseph in the Technicolor dreamcoats.

His brothers hate him. He's the runt of the litter,

gets sold into slavery, ends up in prison.

One thing leads to another. He interprets a dream in prison.

And so when Pharaoh needs his dream interpreted, the cupbearer

says Mr. Farrah Basu Anoaga, he comes out and he interprets that

dream and Pharaoh basically points him to IC because of the

wisdom that he sees. Essentially, he identifies James

15 in Joseph that here is a man who inquires of God and God

gives him wisdom. And that's generally the the

entirety of the story when it comes to Joseph.

But I want to show you one last thing in the final chapter,

Genesis 47. It's a long portion.

I'm going to read it to you. It'll be on the screen.

But you on this now this is Genesis 47 verse 13.

Genesis 47:13

It says there was no food in the whole region because the famine

was so severe. Both Egypt and Canaan wasted

away because of the famine. Joseph collected, and I've

underlined this, all the money that was to be found in Egypt

and Canaan and payment for the grain they were buying, and he

brought it to Pharaoh's palace. When the money of the people of

Egypt and Canaan was gone, all Egypt came to Joseph and said

give us food. Why should we die before your

eyes? Our money is all gone.

Then bring your livestock, said Joseph.

I'll sell you food in exchange for your livestock, since your

money is gone. So they brought their livestock

to Joseph, and he gave them food in exchange for their horses,

their sheep, their goats, their cattle, their donkeys, no cats.

And he brought them through that year with food in exchange for

all their livestock. When that year was over, they

came to him the following year and said, We cannot hide from

our Lord the fact that since our money is gone and you own all

our livestock, there is nothing left for our Lord except our

bodies and our land. Why should we perish before your

eyes? We in our land as well by us and

our land exchange in exchange for food.

And we with our land will be in bondage to Pharaoh.

Give a seed so that we may live and not die, and that the land

may not become desolate. So Joseph bought all the land of

Egypt, Silver Lakes, Muycliffe, Boardwalk Estate, Santon City,

Stellenbosch. He bought all the land in Egypt,

the Egyptians 1 and all sold their fields because the famine

was too severe for them. Then Joseph said to the people,

now that I've bought you and your land today for Pharaoh,

here a seed for you. So you can plant the ground, but

when the crops come in, just a tax of 20%, give 1/5 of it to

Pharaoh. The other 4/5 you may keep a

seed for the fields and there's food for yourselves and your

household and your children. Here is a guy with no education,

no business background, no business degree.

He is 50 years old. Someone here needs to know he

was 30 years old. You know, we think we big deal

with our mergers and acquisitions, but here is a guy

through the wisdom of God, they say in this time, this day and

age, and if you do the calculations, if you think of

the value of the land, the natural resources, its strategic

position and the Army in that time, it's like he's essentially

bought America, the US of a lock, stock and barrel for

Pharaoh at 30 years old. Why?

Because he had an understanding that if anyone lacks wisdom, let

him ask God, who gives generously to all without

finding fault, and it will be given to you.

And I know what you're saying. It's like, yeah, but that was

the Bible. And it was easier in those days.

And didn't men wear dresses? And you know what I mean?

Like everyone was wearing Crocs and it was like, it was back in

the day before they had an IQ. It's different for me.

I mean, you've got to understand global markets and dividends.

And OK, I'll see your cynicism and I'll raise you some faith.

Have you heard of the president of El Salvador?

His name is Naib Bukele, he is the first El Salvadorian

president in two or three generations who has had a second

term as president. And the reason for this is

because El Salvador is such a terrible country to run.

It is not only rather scarce when it comes to natural

resources and this huge, dense population, but it is the most

dangerous country in the world, or at least it was when he took

over the most dangerous country in the world.

He's now being president for five years of El Salvador.

The crime rates, the murder rate is so high that you've got mafia

running the underbelly. You got hits happening almost

every day, gangs, St. corners, drugs, crimes, you name it, it

is It is safer in Iran or Iraq than in El Salvador.

And in three years, it became the safest country in the

Western Hemisphere, safer than America and all their picket

fences, safer than Canada in three years.

And so he's just been re inaugurated starting of his

second term, I think it was this year, beginning of this year.

And so the world wants to know like, what is your secret sauce?

I'm a super keen to know, you know, can we send our president?

What is your secret sauce? And so there's one high profile

journalist that sits at and and has an interview with him and he

also a small talk. But then he goes, he's like,

what, how is it that you did this?

And he says, well, we've got sort of the party line and then

we got the real line. Is it not that the party line is

a lie? Is it, you know, he says

essentially what we did was we gathered Intel on, on what was

happening and we figured out where some of the kingpins were.

And then we trained up our police force and, and weaponry

and hostage negotiation. We doubled or tripled our army

and they came and they backed up.

And then we had the six week period in six weeks, they turned

the country upside down. And he said that's the official

line. You know, this is what you can

do, he said. And then the guys and the real

line, the real truth, he said it was a miracle.

It's like, what do you mean? So no, we prayed and he goes

like, really, you prayed? And then the president said,

well, what would you suggest we do?

No, no, no, pray, pray's good. Yeah, he said.

Because in in your address now as he's been re inaugurated, he

said now they've they've settled, there's now a peaceful

country. Now they want to look at the

economic situation. And he said in his address, they

got a three-point plan, plan #1 is seek God's wisdom.

So this journalist is saying, is that what you mean by seeking

God's wisdom, praying? He said, yeah, So what happened

now in this last three years? He said, well, they started now

with a six week period. The gangs were on the run.

They'd managed to capture, and they were sentencing some key

mafia kingpins. And then they turned.

They suddenly realize, no, no, no, no, no, you're not going to

get away with this. And the gang members and the

Mafia basically turned and became, it was like guerrilla

warfare. And he said they suddenly

realized this is impossible. It looked wonderful on paper,

but actually it's impossible. And he gives details, he says

because, say, in the city with 6 million people, there are only

70,000 gang members, but these guys can shoot anyone.

They can shoot their grandmother.

And it's a statistic for the Mafia.

So where they have to, with specificity, track down these

criminals, and they realize it was impossible.

And he said often 3-4 AM, they're in the situation room,

and they start praying. We need your wisdom.

And so the journalist says, you know, everyone, you know, would

everyone be comfortable with pray?

You know, whatever. He said, no, no.

All our military cabinets are believers said we were on our

knees most of the time. And what God did was you got the

situation breaking out here. Do we give it our undivided

attention? Well, we, it looks like this

guy's in this house. What do we do?

And God will speak. And they'd do it and they'd find

it and they'd find success so that in six weeks time they turn

this place upside down, going from the most dangerous nation

in the world to one of the safest in three years.

And so then he says, listen, we're going to rap with this.

This is the journalist and this is very political.

I don't know if you clip this out of the sermon and get me in

trouble is very prickly or these are his words.

He says, OK, let me understand. By turning the country around

with no help from other nations, what you have proven is that

it's possible to fix any nation because the Bible says is able

to do exceedingly, abundantly above what we could also

imagine, right? Able to fix any nation even with

no finances because it was a very poor nation, no outside

help at all. And the guy says, yes, that's

what we've proven. Doesn't matter what condition

your country is in, it can be fixed.

And then this guy thinking of the nation he's from, says the

following. He says, therefore, my

conclusion is that all crime and corruption and dereliction of

duty must be a voluntary decision that my government is

making about our citizens. This is, yes, that would be

true. Prickly, right?

Very political, right. Now, I know what you're

thinking. You're thinking of Cyril

Ramaphosa. I'm not.

I'm not making a political statement, I'm making a prayer

statement by turning that country around with no help from

other nations. What he has proven is that it

doesn't matter what you are facing, God can redeem it.

All he requires is that we ask. Andrew Murray says God always

works according to the counsel of his will.

The more that counsel of His will is sought and found and

honored and obeyed, the more surely and mightily will God do

His work for us and through us. We have just to ask James one,

verse 5. If any of you lacks wisdom, ask

God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it

will be given to you. Let's be a people constantly

give God no rest, constantly on our knees asking thank you.