Teach us to Pray - Part 3

So we're doing a series on prayer and none of us have ever

arrived. So I'm not standing up here

teaching you how to pray, I'm learning how to pray.

If I did it all again, I would pray some more.

The man who taught me how to pray was a man called Chris

Vinant. He was the leader of the church

that I eventually live in, Durban.

And he went and he was a teacher and he went into full time

ministry. And after two hours of being in

full time ministry, he didn't know what to do.

So I thought, let me go and buy a bean bag, bring it into my

office, get on my knees because that's like quite a good place

to pray. Put my face in the bean bag and

intercede for the salvation of Russia and Durban and everything

in between. And he said he bought the bean

bag, he put it down in the thing.

He got down on his knees with all holy intentions, stuck his

face into the bean bag and woke up three hours later.

That was his introduction to prayer.

And so we all have these magnificent desires to change

the world. And you, Lord Jesus, I pray for

your salvation. And, and then you're thinking

about motorbikes and holidays and and coffee.

And it's, it's not easy to pray, but it is the key to the Kingdom

of God. And so we're learning together

as a community on how to pray. We're looking through the Lord's

Prayer and God has amazing things.

If he weren't here 2 weeks ago when I preached.

I've never told the story about my brain operation, but for some

reason I've told the story about my brain operation and Doctor

Ackerman and his wife, Doctor Mustard, who was my

anaesthetist, that happened 35 years ago.

He subsequently passed away and I've not seen her again.

And then I've got a phone call from a lady in Stellenbosch and

said, hey, Rory, I know you're coming to preach in

Stellenbosch. Your anaesthetist, Dr. Mustard

is going to be there. We're just talking about prayer.

35 years. I've not seen her.

She's just moved to Stellenbosch.

She doesn't know anybody in Stellenbosch.

And she comes to the service that I happen to be preaching at

in Stellenbosch. You can put it up on all the

screens. I called it to the front.

I said, ma'am, you are the only living human being that can

testify in court that I've got a brain.

You know what she said? Buy a clay iniki.

So buy a clay. So buy a buy a clay iniki.

But God can do anything. You can use a little verse of a

priest, of somebody in Pretoria to introduce a doctor down in

Stellenbosch to a community of people.

And I said 35 years ago you were in my key, I was in your key,

but now you are in my key. I would like to introduce my

doctor to this community. Please look after her.

And so we bumble along as we learn how to pray and take us on

a journey. So come on a Tuesday and learn

how to pray. You don't have to pray wild and

exotic prayers. You don't have to get all your

theology right. I always say this, you can't get

prayer wrong. You can't get prayer wrong.

It doesn't matter where how you stand or sit or lie or run, or

you can't get prayer wrong. Prayer is a communication

between you and our Father in heaven.

You can't get it wrong. I'm reading a book of a of a

young man who's 13 years old. He didn't believe in God or he

kind of believed in God. And his biology teacher came

into his biology class one day and said, young man, do you

believe in God? He said, Sir, he's an American

guy. He said, Sir, I think I believe

in God, but I'm not sure if I believe in God, but but but I'm

trying to believe in God. And he said, young man, why

don't you try and pray? And he said, what does that look

like? So he said, why don't you take

your 8th grade 8th class list and just spend the next term

walking around the school praying for your grade A class

by name. So he did that and as he did

that, he learnt about God. And the more he learnt about

God, he fell in love with God and then he gave his life to

God. And then the teacher said, now

why don't you start meeting with some of your grade eight people?

So they started in a maths class and every Wednesday morning

before the sun came up, we'd go to school and take the list of

names and he would pray. And eventually the maths class

was outgrown. So they went into the lecture

hall and eventually the lecture hall was outgrown.

So they went into the main school hall with a 13 year old

boy who had absolutely no theology, said he would just

open his Bible randomly, pick a verse, preach, write a few

things down, stand up after an hour of prayer on a Wednesday

morning, and he led a revival in his school.

Why don't you just try and pray? Why?

Why don't you just try and pray? Not just one day or two days or

five days. Why don't you just try and pray

and see what God does? This is what he writes in his

struggle with pray. Holy One, there's something I

wanted to tell you. But there have been errands to

run, bills to pay, arrangements to make, meetings to attend,

friends to entertain, watching to do.

And I forget what it is that I wanted to say to you.

And mostly I forget what I'm about or why.

Oh God, don't forget me, please, for the sake of Jesus Christ,

Eternal One. There's something I wanted to

tell you. But my mind races with worrying

and watching, with waiting and planning, with rutted slights

and potholed grievances, with leaky dreams and leaky plumbing

and leaky relationships I keep trying to plug up, and my

attention is preoccupied with loneliness, with doubt and with

things like covet. And I forget what it is I want

to say to you and how to say it honestly, or how much to do

about anything. Oh God, don't forget me, please,

for the sake of Jesus Christ Almighty One.

There's something I wanted to ask you.

But I stumble along the edge of a nameless rage, haunted by 100

floating fears of terrorists of all kinds, of losing my job, of

falling, of getting sick and old, having loved ones die or

dying. I forget what the real question

is that I wanted to ask, and I forget to listen anyway because

you seem unreal and far away and I forget what it is that I have

forgotten. Oh, God, don't forget me,

please, for the sake of Jesus Christ.

Oh, Father in heaven, perhaps you've already heard that I

wanted to tell you. What I wanted to ask is forgive

me, heal me, increase my courage, please.

Renewing me. A little bit of love and faith

and a sense of confidence and a vision of what is and what might

be. To live as though you were real

and I mattered and everyone was my sister and brother.

What I wanted to ask you is my blundering way is don't give up

on me, don't become too sad about me, but laugh with me and

try again with me and I will try again with you.

What I wanted to ask for peace enough to want and want work for

more, for joy enough to share and for awareness that is keen

enough to sense your presence. Dear God, here, now, there, then

always let's say together our Father, who art in heaven,

hallowed be your name, your Kingdom come, your will be done

on earth as it is in heaven. We have a lady who runs an

orphanage in the townships of this country.

She sent me two little clips of a 5 year old girl and a

three-year old boy. I just want you to listen to

them. Your name.

It's what's the greatest thing to

teach an orphan? Our Father who art in heaven,

hallowed be your name. It's the greatest thing that you

can teach an orphan and it's the greatest thing that you can

teach an adult because it up until that time, God was

distant. God was a fire, God was holy,

God was the God of the 10 commandments.

God was addressed. I didn't even pronounce his

name, Yahweh. It was just like YHW, you

wouldn't even pronounce God's full name.

He's a distant God. He's a powerful God.

He is an almighty God. And when Jesus says this is how

you're going to pray our Father, say Father, he was breaking down

every wall of the fear of God and bringing us into a very,

very, very close relationship. It was completely and utterly

against everything that religious people had ever

learned up until that time. And we said this, because your

earthly father is poor does not mean our biblical father is

poor. He is a beautiful, kind,

generous, big hearted, covenantal, extravagant God.

And you and I have got access to him in pray.

Pray is just genuinely coming like a son and a daughter into

the presence of the Father. I ask myself this question and

many ask me this question is God an egomaniac or does he love

attention or do why do I have to keep honoring his name?

And so you have this incredible thing, our Father who art in

heaven hallowed. That's the word holy hallowed be

your name. Holiness is like so father is

really close and holiness is really far and they get put next

to each other because the name and it's think of God.

Must I just like keep praising you every Sunday?

Must I keep coming with 3000 people and singing your name

over? Do you love attention, God?

Do you love to be the center of attention?

But that's not what the prayer is about.

The prayer about is I will only find my proper reorientation or

my orientation. I will only find my true worth

when I put God at the center and He loves me from that place.

For instance, the problem is we have many names in our lives.

Ambition, pride, sex, money, alcohol.

We've got all these names that dictate our lives.

And God says, I want you to honor my name.

Name is holy. And when you honor my name as

holy, you'll understand how much you are loved.

And so the reason why we give God his rightful place is so

that you and I can understand our rightful place.

And that's the Son and daughters of God.

And then it goes and it says, your Kingdom come.

Say that with me, your Kingdom come.

Some of you know this. You saw me going through the

process of a nervous breakdown many years ago.

Seven or eight years ago, I went through a nervous breakdown.

I went on to medication and it was a really tough journey for

me. And for years, for years, I've

prayed to God that in the instant, you know, we can have

the Kingdom of God can come in all sorts of places.

I've just seen if you, if you Google world #1 golfer who is a

outspoken Christian. He's just won the Olympic gold.

He's just, he is the top of his game.

He is a Christ follower. He is absolutely, he is an

unbelievable witness of Christ. But this week he hit a bad shot.

He smashed his club into the ground and he let out an

expletive because the Kingdom to come is is a big thing.

It's a big thing now, now, now it's everyone.

But the Christian guy swears Christian people do sway.

But we want the Kingdom to keep coming into our lives so that

eventually he rules and reigns. And I've asked God, Lord, I want

my first reaction. But it's easy over time for the

Kingdom to come. I want my first reaction to be

the king. And so on Tuesday night I was in

Durban with my son and my wife. We'd flown back from Cape Town.

I just worked that way, drove to Durban, went to business, flew

back from Cape Town. I was having something to eat

and my wife's food went down, my son's food went down and the

waiter came to put my food down. And as he was about to put it

down, he hit the chair in front of it and you can see my hand is

all burnt. He smacked the plate, the source

hit my hand, burnt my hand went on my clothes, the butternut and

spinach landed in my lap, the plate broke and the steak landed

on the table like that. And I grabbed his hand and I

pulled him close and I said the Kingdom has come, our Father who

art in heaven, hallowed be your name, thy Kingdom come.

And I said, it's OK. I said the best guy for this to

happen to in the whole restaurant is me because God has

been with me on a six year journey asking for his Kingdom

to come. And he needed to break a plate

and burn my hand and drop butternut on my lap.

And you know, friends, I went to the bathroom, I cleaned up and I

came and said and I said to my wife, I am better.

It's taken six years for that journey to take place, and I

don't know how long it will take with you as we wrestle through

everybody going through their own stuff.

But we want the king and the Kingdom to come.

The definition of the Kingdom is very simple to me.

It's the place where Jesus is king.

It's very simple. It's the place where Jesus is

King and you can take every area of your life, your money, your

relationships, your time, your eyes, your words, your

relationships, your finances, your drinking habits.

You can take every single one of your parts of your life and ask

a simple question. Is he the King?

Because the prayer that we pray is a radical prayer.

Because before 1 king can take over, the other king has to be

dethroned. The other king has to be

dethroned. And all of us have got little

kingdoms in our lives. All of us have got little areas

of power that we grip hold of and hold onto.

And so there has to be a complete dethroning with the

whiskey in one hand and their hand lifted to Jesus saying

wrong with drinking. No, I just want to ask you this.

Is he the King? Every time you pull your wallet

out, that's going to answer the question, is he the king?

Because if you pray the pray, he's going to completely and

utterly turn your life around. He's going to turn it upside

down. And even in the church, friends,

before we know it, before we know it, you see pastors, I am

exactly the same. There is something inside of me

that wants to be king. Before you know it, the church,

which is meant to preach freedom, ends up serving people.

These personalities in the front.

Friends, we are just servants. He is the king.

Don't serve a human being. Serve God, serve the King, Amen.

He is the king. And so we look at, let's have a

look at John chapter 12, please. I want to talk about the king

John 12 · chapter mention

out the four, four ways. I just find the Kingdom of God

#1 so Jesus is the king #2 where he rules without rival, where he

rules without rival, that there's, there's nobody fighting

for his attention #3 where he reverses the fall of humanity.

Humanity's fall includes bitterness and hatred and gossip

and slander and and unforgiveness and, and all that

rubbish. And when the King comes, he

reverses it and finally he starts to restore back to the

original intention, starts to restore.

So when we pray our Father who art in heaven hallowed be your

name, your Kingdom come. That is like the clearing

warfare on 56 years of my trigger happy emotional response

to anything that doesn't go according to my plan.

I know the owner of that restaurant.

He's a Jewish man. His name is Mr. Lazarus.

He happened to phone me last week when I was on the steps of

the of the church. He phoned me.

He said, hey, raw, it's Lazie here.

I said, how are you Lazie? He said, hey, when are you going

to come and have a steak at my steakhouse?

I thought you're and I said to the manager, please don't tell

Mister Lazarus that this happened because I don't want

him to phone me and to say sorry it didn't happen so that he

could say sorry because I love people saying sorry to me.

It happened so that I can know if I'm OK with Jesus being the

king of my immediate response. And I want to tell you I have

failed dismally over many years, but I continue to pray.

Jesus be the king, Jesus rule without rival, Jesus reverse the

fallenness of my own humanity, and Jesus restore what your

original intention was for the church, for people, for

relationships, for marriage, for sexuality, for whatever it might

be. Amen.

John chapter 12 verse 12. The next day the great crowd

John 12:12

that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was on his way to

Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went

out to meet him, shouting Hosanna.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Blessed is the king of Israel. Jesus found a young donkey and

he sets upon it as it is written.

Do not be afraid, O daughter of Zion, see your, your king, say

your king is coming, say coming seated on a donkey.

So you'd have a War Horse and you'd have a donkey.

A War Horse was for was for war. And when a king went to war, he

rode a War Horse. And when the king was at peace,

he rode. And when Jesus rode into

Jerusalem, he never rode a War Horse.

He rode eh? Because when he comes into your

life, He comes in peace. He comes to bring peace into

your life. And friends, we don't have time,

but that is a phrase from Zechariah Chapter 9 and we can

Zechariah 9 · chapter mention

turn to Zechariah Chapter 9, please.

Zechariah 9 · chapter mention

It's a quote from Zechariah 9. And if you have time, you can go

and read John chapter 13. I don't want to take too long,

John 13 · chapter mention

but as he gets pronounced as the king in John chapter 12, in John

John 12 · chapter mention John 13 · chapter mention

chapter 13, it says this. You can go and read it.

It says Now Jesus says, I will display to you the full extent

of my love. Taking off his outer garment and

wrapping it around his waist, he started to wash his disciples

feet. This Kingdom, friends.

Sometimes when we preach this Kingdom in the church, it is a

powerhouse, personality driven, loud, expressive nature about

control and dominion. That's not the biblical version

of the Kingdom. The biblical version of the

Kingdom is that Jesus will gently ride into your life, take

off his garment of a king and wash your feet.

And he says, and now you go and do likewise.

And we get a lot of dominion type people.

We are going to take over the city.

We're going to dominate the city.

The Kingdom is going to come now.

The Kingdom is going to come by gentleness and by kindness and

by generosity. And when people are broken,

we're going to fix them. And when people have fallen

down, we're going to pick them up so good, Rory.

And when people think they're important, we're going to just

take off our importance. We're going to wash their feet.

Now people do a lot of washing of feet.

That's not the actual, that's not it's just serving.

Take people who have babies a meal.

Take somebody who's just got divorced and they're sitting in

their house crying in the loneliness of the divorce,

completely rejected. Just take them a meal, wash

their feet and show them where our King is like, Amen.

Just say this, Our Father, our Father who art in heaven.

Say it again, Our Father who art in heaven.

Hallowed be your name. close your eyes, say Our Father who

art in heaven. Some of you don't know what on

earth to do next. You art on earth.

You've lost your marriage, you've lost your business,

you've lost your confidence. You've lost your way.

You don't know what to do. I want to tell you, He arts in

heaven. He knows the plan of your life.

You can see the beginning from the end.

He knows the width and the depths and He loves you and he's

given you access so you can come into his presence with all your

earthiness and thinking. I don't even know what to say.

Lord God, I fall asleep on a beanbag.

Lord God, when I try and pray, I can't pray for more than 5

minutes with my mind wandering. But know this, He art in heaven

and you art on earth and that should give you enough

confidence. Hallowed be your name.

We treat your name as holy Lord God with all the names that are

shouting at us. Pride and anger and expletives

and drunkenness. All the names that are shouting

for our attention. The things that define us, our

degrees and our careers, Lord God.

The things that give us purpose and meaning, Lord God, we choose

to hallow your name above those so that when we see you that

we'll really see ourselves. Lord God, that we are not some

products of a commercial institution, Lord God, but we

are sons and daughters of a loving God who knit us together

by divine design. You put my DNA together.

You made me like I am God. You designed my nose and my

mouth and my ears. You decided when I would go

bald, Lord God. You decided, Father God, where I

would go to school and where I'd end up living and who I'd end up

living next to, Lord God. And as we hallow your name, I

pray the identity, Lord God, the identity of every person would

be completely and utterly secured today.

It's not determined on a rugby field on a Saturday.

It's determined at the cross where you gave us access to God

the Father. Not Yahweh, not the fire that

came from heaven or the cloud that billowed at night, but the

Father, the relational God. Now let's pray this prayer.

Thy Kingdom come. Let's pray it again, Thy Kingdom

come, Thy Kingdom come. I do not believe as you just

keep your eyes closed. I do not believe you can pray a

more radical pray ever in your life than that.

Pray thy Kingdom come. That means you're giving the

authority of your life over to someone.

And I want to say to you that someone who deserves the palm

branches to be cut, he deserves the crowd to shout hosanna, that

one takes off his outer garment, wraps it around his waist, gets

on his knees and washes your feet.

And he says, let me explain to you the fullness of my love.

Let me show you the fullness of my love.

I pray today, Lord God, that your Kingdom would come in every

life, in every brokenness, reverse the curse of fallen

humanity. Start with my immediate reaction

to opposition and restore it to its original design in Jesus

name.