Teach us to Pray - Part 2

Good morning, happy Sunday. This day of the week, if you

have a Bible with you once you open up to the book of John

John 17 · chapter mention

chapter 17. So one of the gospels, Matthew,

Mark, Luke, John going to be in 17 this this morning.

I don't know if you've ever wondered some of the things that

go on in my head. If you ever wondered what it

would be like to be on the royal family's WhatsApp group, I'm

sure they must have, you know, I, I don't think they're stuck

in the dark ages with Jay writing letters to one another

and then, you know, sealing it with a signet ring and asking,

you know, Basil, please, won't you give this to Mama?

I'm sure they must have a royal WhatsApp group, you know, best

family ever. I don't know what it is, but I

was thinking the other day like ladies, you imagine you want

back to those younger days. You finish varsity, you got some

time on your hand, you do a gap year, you head on out to Europe,

backpacking across Europe and you meet the Prince and one

thing leads to another for head over heels and love.

Next thing you know, you're engaged.

You know you've got the Cullen and Diamond on your on your ring

finger and you're back home in South Africa, busy packing up.

You know your hair tied up in a bun, no makeup, makeup on.

You're cleaning your room and your phone buzzes and you pick

it up and you've been added to the royal family's WhatsApp

group here. I wonder what would go through

your mind in those moments. I can tell you what went through

my mind. I'm thinking, are memes allowed?

I've got some really good Australian break dancing memes

that just need to be shared. You know, would have been

outdone by the Australian rugby team at the moment.

But I'm thinking, you know, would, would that be

permissible? Is that a thing, you know, what

about status updates? Do we do that?

Do we do that? Are you allowed to just go K,

which my wife hates? And then what do you call the

King, Your Royal Highness, Mr. the King?

Maybe it's a little bit more informal, but still posh Papa or

daddy, you know? Well, whatever happens on the

royal family's WhatsApp group, I can tell you this.

You would learn the the ways of it by looking at the Prince.

How does the Prince interact with Papa?

Does he mean does he status updates?

And we're going to do the same thing today because we're going

to look at the ultimate royal family WhatsApp group.

We're going to take a look at the prayer that Jesus praises.

The only portion of Scripture where we find the nuts and bolts

of Jesus intercessory pray with our heavenly Father.

The Royal WhatsApp group we're invited on and we're going to

take a look and we're going to learn some lessons from Jesus

and how he communes with his Father.

And so today's going to be a little bit more like you and me

sitting with a Bible open and a cup of coffee, a little less

ceremony. But I just want to show you some

of the things that I've found that have astounded me when it

comes to this portion of Scripture, which is John chapter

John 17 · chapter mention

17. It is the entire Scripture, so

entire chapter. So we're not going to look at

that in its entirety. I just want to pick up two or

three Nuggets and when I say Nuggets, it's with a capital N.

This is it has so challenged, encouraged and inspired me and I

trust that it does the same. But we are going to go properly

straight into the deep end. OK, so buckle yourself up.

Turn to verse one in John 17, which says after Jesus said

this, he looked toward heaven and prayed Father, the hour has

come. Glorify your son that your son

may glorify you. A couple of things that I saw

right from the very beginning there.

Notice the first word that Jesus prays.

Father. You see, it's not a coincidence

when he's teaching the disciples how to pray, how does he start

our Father? But notice then he says, Father,

the hours come glorify your son, that your son may glorify you.

What does Jesus do when he teaches the disciples how to

pray? Our Father, who art in heaven,

hallowed be your name. There's something about

beginning with the glory of God when it comes to prayer that I

believe you and I need to have an understanding of.

I don't know if you've ever had one of those occasions where you

lost your stuffs. You know, someone crossed you in

such a way that you just wanted to kill.

It doesn't have to be an angry thing, but it's this, you know,

you have an incident or a moment where you think never again.

Like, that's it, I'm out of here.

You know, maybe it was your boss.

You felt a little bit betrayed. Maybe it was a work colleague.

It took all the glory and he did it again.

And you're just thinking and you know, you're busy in the shower,

Lather, rinse, repeats and you're having that argument.

If I see him again, I'll, I'll say that if I just let him come

and ask me to help on that project, you know, whatever it

is, this thing that's stewing in you.

I don't know if you've ever had that.

I know that you're very holy, but I heard of another pastor at

another church who had this incident very recently, You

know, yeah, like, seriously, lose your salvation, kind of.

It's in the red there. And so this thing is busy

fermenting back in the dark recesses of my mind when I get

asked to preach on this portion of Scripture.

And so there, I'm there in the presence of the Lord, inquiring

of the original Greek, And I read this.

It says, oh, this is where Jesus starts, glorify your son, that

your son may glorify you. And I'm honestly looking in this

to see somewhere because what I want to pray is I want to pray,

Father, stop his cotton picking heart, finish that foul being,

you know, Yeah, I know. I just pray like that.

I really do. David did too, by the way.

So get out of jail free call. But I'm looking at this, I'm

going like, and the Holy Spirit says to me, why not ask me how I

want to be glorified in this situation?

And that that's so unfair because I'm a pastor.

I have to practice what I preach.

I'm thinking like, no, can't you tell me this next Monday?

You know, I'm like, what? How will you be most glorified

like? In other words, our Father in

art, in heaven, hallowed be your name.

I have this situation and our actually I would love you to

remove them from the face of the planet of this earth, but I'm

actually going to ask you and I'm going to pray like I see

Jesus praying. I'm going to say, Father, would

you show me what is required of me so that you will be glorified

in this situation? Would you move in such a way

that you would be glorified in this situation?

Here's a heads up. This is something that the Holy

Spirit taught me many years ago. If you're having an argument

with your neighbor, you know, like how angry can we get?

This is what the Holy Spirit said to me once he said, don't

get any angrier or any more feisty or any more prickly or

have any more vitriol in your words such that in that moment

you couldn't say, hey, listen, would you come to church with me

on Sunday? You know, then you know, you've

kind of crossed that line right now.

All of a sudden you can't, you know, because you've gone from

God centered to me centered. You've gone from glorify your

name to give me my way. And it can undo you when you see

this. And what's interesting is this

is the very place that Rory ended the Jonah series on.

If you were here that Sunday morning, in the morning, he kind

of blushed over it. So I do want to unpack just a

little bit the portion where Jonah refers to God.

And he says that's why I didn't want to go to Nineveh because

and then he mentions the Exodus 34 name of God, that you're

gracious and compassionate and slow to anger, bounding in love

and abounding in faithfulness, that you maintain love to

thousands and you forgive rebellion, wickedness and sin.

There's seven things there that he refers to.

He doesn't mention the 8th. The 8th is that God does not

leave the guilty unpunished, right.

And what Rory said in, in the week before, before he preached,

he was busy telling me, he said, you know, I think a lot of us

Christians live in this number 8.

Moses says, show me your glory. And God shows Moses these eight

attributes of his character. Jonah got stuck on #8 do not

leave the guilty unpunished. And then Raw said, a lot of the

time we behave like that as Christians, all we know of God

is that he doesn't leave the wicked unpunished.

But he said before you even get there, there's these seven

monstrously massive attributes of God that come first,

gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in love and

abounding in faithfulness before he even gets anywhere near

looking at, hey, listen, we need to deal with your anger issue.

And God does that on page one. He says to Adam and Eve, you can

eat of all the trees in the garden, just don't eat from

Trina bite. But we get fixated on that.

And that happens when we take the glory of God and we move it

aside and we put ourselves in there.

My, you need a justice in there. Do you realize what he's doing?

And it turns this Kingdom prey on its head, puts myself in the

center. And I said, we're going to start

in the deep end. And we're there already.

Because as RAW was busy telling me this, I suddenly realized why

we have lost so many elders from this church over the years.

If you knew in Three CR, you might not know a very dark,

bumpy and battered past. We've had elders, guys on team

with me saying you know what, you can just take your stuffs.

That church, those people, that Oak, that family, that life

group leader #8 left Three CR. I can tell you have a handful

who've left the church in its entirety.

Did you know that the guy that brought myself and my wife onto

eldership here at 3 CR is one of those?

He didn't just leave three CR. He didn't just leave the church.

We've heard rumors that he's burnt his Bible out of fixation

on his own glory. You want to know how to bring a

giant of a man in his faith to his knees?

Trickle his glory into that, just slowly remove the glory of

God outside. And that was the first thing I

saw when I looked at this. It was the first adjustment I

realized that needed to come to my prayer life.

Remember, we are doing a series teach us to pray.

And so we have to look at this and say, Lord, would you teach

me how to pray? Because I've faced some stuffs.

I have had some questions. We have been through the valley

of the shadow of death, and I think I have every right.

And then you read this and you see, Father, the hour has come.

Glorify your Son that your son may glorify you.

And Jesus says the hour has come.

You know what hour he's talking about the hour that he is to be

crucified. So I can't say, well, yeah, you

don't understand what I'm going through.

I need a little. Yeah.

No, no, no. He was about to be crucified.

And in that place, he was able to say, Father, our Father who

art in heaven, hallowed be your name.

And that's one of the changes I believe that we need to see.

We need to consider this when it comes to our prayer life.

We're going to stay in the deep end, but we're going to come up

for breath in just a second because the second thing that we

see here is I know it's very quiet.

It feels like I've shot Bambi. Welcome to church.

Yeah. Bunch of sinners.

You. Sorry.

This is where he started. And this is where the Holy

Spirit began in me as well. Oh yeah.

Verse 11 says, Holy Father, protect them by the power of

your name, the name that you gave me, so that they might be

one as we are one. Holy Father, protect them by the

power of your name. This is the second thing that I

spotted you. And I'm saying, Lord, teach me

how to pray. OK?

We put your glory in place. We start there.

That's why I think he says enter gates of Thanksgiving in his

courts with praise. We're reminded that this God is

greater than us. OK, He's, he's there.

And then Jesus suddenly changed his tack and starts to pray for

us. Holy Father, protect them by the

power of your name. What does it mean to be

protected by the power of your name?

If you've been in three CR for a while, you'll know that in

December last year we nearly lost my youngest daughter and we

were in ICU in the isolation ward.

My life was falling apart. You know, you don't have that

cute coffee cup scripture verse that you can cling to.

Everything's gone. You're not touching sides.

And I began to cry to God. I'm like, Lord, you've got to

speak to me. I do I as a husband and as a

father. Do I need to begin to prepare my

family to lose my youngest daughter?

Or do we lean in you, into you and trust you for healing?

And I said, Father, you've got to speak to me through your word

because there's too much emotion, too much going on in my

head right now. And day after day, it was like

eating sawdust. Nothing.

The Bible had never felt so foreign in my life until I

randomly got my Bible reading plan to Psalm 100 and 1955,

where Davis says I remember your name in the night and that it

jumped off the page. Can you remember what you're

asking the question? Why does he say, Holy Father

protect them by the power of your name?

He said remember my name in the night.

And so I'm going like, OK, your name to the Hebrews was your

reputation, was your character. That's why God, when he displays

his glory, he does so by telling Moses his name.

So I'm remembering that he's compassionate.

He knows I am. But dust, I'm a dad.

I'm dying on the inside while my daughter's dying on the outside.

He knows I remember your name in the night.

And I was reading through Psalm 20.

It's actually been referenced there quite a few times over the

last few weeks and God just unlocked something.

There's Psalm 20 for those who are here on Tuesday nights and

are starting to pray the Psalms, hop, skip and jump ahead and get

to Psalm 20. It's beautiful.

It begins where it says may the Lord answer you in your in

distress. May the name of the God of Jacob

rescue you. May He send you support from His

sanctuary and help from Zion. May He remember your offerings

and reward your sacrifices. And then He says it's in the

Bible. He says, may He give you your

heart's desire and answer all your plans.

May we lift up a banner over your victories and declare over

you the name of our God. It starts with the name of God,

finishes with the name of God. And I felt like God is busy

saying something here, like what is it about being protected and

leaning on and trusting in the name of God?

And this is what I found. So it begins.

It says, may the Lord answer you when you're in your, when you're

in distress. That's the NIV, the ESV says,

may the Lord answer you in your day of trouble.

So I'm going like, why does the one seem like, you know, Hey,

you'll pray and pray and pray and pray and pray and pray and

pray and pray, and then God might answer you.

And the other one says, you know, you press and God answers

you. It's like, which is it?

Is it ESV day of trouble or in your distress, this long and

lengthy painful gruel? Actually, I emailed ESV, the

translators to ask like, why? Because when you look at the

Scripture, it doesn't really seem like day of trouble.

It almost seems misleading. See, Kenneth Copeland tells the

story how at one stage he was having watermelon on a Saturday

afternoon, and they're busy speaking out the seeds as one

normally does. And then he hatched the play.

And he thought, you know why? I'm not going to plant the seed.

And then we can have watermelons every day.

I don't have to wait for mom to buy watermelons on Saturday.

So he went behind the wall where it was a safe place, dig a

little hole, put the watermelon seed in there.

Pet, pet, pet, pet pet comes home from school on the Monday.

He thinks that, hey, it's Watermelon Tom.

And he run, go round behind the wall and there's like nothing.

Absolutely nothing Tuesday, nothing Wednesday.

Eventually, he's starting to lose faith when this little

thing pops through the ground. He's like, oh, tomorrow we feast

on watermelon tomorrow off the bus, down around the house,

behind the wall. And this thing is there's no

watermelon. And his dad had been watching

him come home, and he noticed the sun was getting more and

more bleak over time. So dad decided, I'm going to go

to the shops, buy a watermelon, lift up that little leaf stick

in the. So Kenneth says he comes over.

Oh my gosh, we're feasting on watermelon.

You see in our hearts that is how we expect God to work in the

day of trouble. Rabba son quoted Psalm 20.

You say there I will give you the desire of your heart, Genie.

My first wish is the desire of my heart.

But it doesn't say that the the meaning there.

I mean, I'm just this boy key from Pretoria, but I think ESV

got it wrong. Says may the Lord answer you in

your distress. Distress is this long term

thing. But what distress being answered

in your distress looks like is if you got a little bit of a

grain of sand there, we want a day of trouble.

Just blow it away. When the Lord answers you in

your distress, when He protects you with his name, what He does

is he wraps that grain of sand in his glory, and that grain of

sand turns to a Pearl. And so David is running from

Saul, the king who wants to kill him, and he cries out to the

Lord in his distress. He calls on the name of his God.

And God doesn't smite Saul. He protects him and makes David

king. See, when we answered in our day

of trouble, we think, oh, sure, lucky that yeah, the boss didn't

notice I hadn't finished the project.

Off we go. But when he answers you in your

distress, he makes you the boss, or he promotes you to the head

of that department, it's very different.

The one carries the glory of God, the other one carries the

glory of man. So Sarah is crying out in her

distress, calling out in the name of the Lord, because for

years she hasn't been able to fall pregnant.

Now she's an outcast. She's the lesser wife.

She's been teased and mocked God doesn't answer her in her day of

trouble and give her a child she he answers her in her distress

and gives her Samuel. Samuel who lead the nation of

Israel and sometimes you and I are praying Lord answer me in

the day of trouble. The Chwani government and what

God wants to do is he wants to make you president.

But we're so fixated on our own glory, our own little temporary.

And so Joseph cries out to God, Lord, answer me in my distress.

I'm in prison. He could have answered him in

his day of trouble and just let him out of prison.

Instead, he releases him at the right time.

He creates a Pearl and Joseph becomes the two I see.

And so Jesus about to be crucified, looks at you and I

and he says, Father, protect them by the power of your name,

that name that is faithful to generations.

Protect them in spite of the fact that they're a 2 minute

noodle. Just add water, instant coffee

community. Protect them for generations.

Look after their marriage, not just for their marriage, but so

that their children can grow up in a home without divorced

parents, so that it is more likely that they will make a

success of their marriage. Because in the Israelites or in

the Jewish mind, you are never blessed.

Unless it influences the third generation, because God is a God

of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And to the Jewish mind, to the

Hebrews, it wasn't a blessing. Until what you are going through

benefits your grandchildren. And that is a complete different

spin on your quiet time on your knees where you're so irritated

because the neighbor's dog just won't shut up.

Absolutely pray for the Dawn Dog, but know that in your

praise, when you begin to put the glory of God first and when

you recognize the purposes of God, it is a whole different

relationship. It's the relationship you find

on the royal family's WhatsApp group.

It's also the relationship that helps you deal with when you're

being blue ticked by God and you just feel like He doesn't care

to recognize these processes. Sometimes He does answer us in

our day of trouble, but most time the tenure of the Father's

heart for you and I is this time of distress because the purposes

and the plans and what He's producing far surpasses what you

could ever begin to imagine. But we lose hope.

And they often say we lose hope. One prayer before it's answered.

Give up. It is moving around pray without

ceasing. That's it.

Yeah. Lastly, they're coming out for

air. He then says in verse 20, he

says my prayers not for them alone.

I pray also for those who will believe in me through their

message that all of them may be one.

What I noticed is that he begins to pray for you and I 2000 years

ago he was praying for you and I He says there my pray is not for

them alone. Talking about his disciples that

were overhearing and pray, he says, I pray also for those who

will believe you and I one day, but also those who will believe

beyond us through our message. The the message Bible says, I

pray for those who will believe because of these people's

witness. In other words, he was looking

down the corridors of history to Pretoria and he's praying for

you and I that we would carry this message.

Well, he gives us this Pearl, this Pearl of great price, and

he's praised Father, would you, would you make sure that they,

they steward this gospel well in their city in their time?

Now here's a question. What is the boldest prayer you

can think to pray? I'll give you a second.

What is the boldest prayer you can think to pray?

Like if you were to ask an extravagant request of God right

now, what would be the craziest thing?

What's that name that you think? Not him, not her.

We we're praying on Tuesday and I was reminded Pete Gregg talks

about thin places. So in one of his books on pray,

he encourages people here. Pete Gregg is the guy who's run

this 24/7 prayer thing for years now, goes around the world

teaching on prayer, and he says one of the things he's noticed

is that he refers to it as thin places.

It's these places where somehow it just seems like God is

closer. I don't know if you've ever

noticed those kind of things. Honestly, it's the reason why

I'm in Pretoria. I'm a Durban boy, came up to

study and every time I went back down on holiday, it just seemed

like that was hard, rugged ground.

And Pretoria is like you close your eyes and it feels like

God's there. And so he says he even

encourages people to pray in the same place when you have your

quiet time. You know, we like to be like

little butterflies and what have you.

But if you find a spot, pray there all the time.

He says it's almost like you uncap a well.

So I was mentioning this at our prayer meeting on Tuesday.

And then as we close, I just said, listen, guys, why don't

we, before we go, let's walk among the chairs, take some

time, maybe spend 5 minutes and let's make that a thin place

because it's, it's highly unlikely that much prayer has

gone on in your seat. Because we're a consumer people.

We want to come, we want to consume, tell me, feed me,

entertain me. You want to go home.

Very little prayer going on there.

And I want to take that page, that thin veneer and let's just

rub it a little bit. And so we did that.

We went up and we went and we prayed for the seat that you're

sitting on. And I went up into that space

over there and I sat in your seat and I prayed for you that

God would be near. And I prayed things like that

the gospel would make sense to you.

I prayed for your marriage. I prayed for your finances.

And then there was a moment I said, Father, would you reach

their hearts and save them? And when I prayed that something

happened, it was almost like like a finger went through.

And so you might be sitting there this morning.

You might have said, Father, Mr. God, Your Royal Highness, Mr.

the King, I don't know if you even know if I exist.

This is his answer to you, that I would Pierce that thin layer

so that you would know. I noticed you.

I know you. I'm after you, and I don't know,

you might have been running from God for a while.

You might have been doubting his faithfulness.

Maybe like me, you went through a deep and dark valley, losing a

loved one, and you're like God, Do you even care?

This is Him telling you, I care more than you ever could hope or

imagine. And my prayer is what I've just

asked. What is the boldest prayer that

you can think to pray? Lord, I pray that your Holy

Spirit and your presence will be on that seat.

Touch that life, change that future.

So what? What is the boldest prayer that

you would pray? Because the Bible says in

Ephesians chapter 3 that God is able to do exceedingly

Ephesians 3 · chapter mention

abundantly above all that we can ask or imagine according to His

power that is at work in US for his glory through all the

generations. We're going right the way around

for his glory. I pray is not for them.

I pray also that those who will pray also for those who will

believe in me through their message, because that will

glorify Him. So we're completing the circle.

So I don't know if you know the name Karl Idelman.

He's a he's a speaker and author and he was touching on this

verse once and there was someone that came up to him afterwards.

He was thinking kind of what you were thinking, you know, like

really thin places sit in the same spot, you know, isn't this

just a little bit of spin exceedingly abundantly above?

Isn't it like God speak for come on, man, try harder, do more.

So this guy coming, his name is Charles.

He comes to Carl and said, you know, I'm a salesman.

I know I can spot sales talk a mile away, you know, buy one,

get one free. I was like, so Carl said, OK, I

love your honesty, he says. But here's my challenge to you,

He says, you, I want you to ask this, what's the boldest prayer

that you can pray? He said, But it needs to be so

bold that it's completely out of your control.

So you pick something completely out of your control.

You're a salesperson, so not your sales target.

That's within your control. You're a married man, so not

that you've become a father for the second time, that's within

your control, something completely out of your control

and said and you commit to pray for that thing for every day for

the next six months and said, and if God doesn't do

exceedingly abundantly above what you could hope or imagine,

I will pay you 10,000 rent. Yeah.

Just so you know, this is not a prayer incentive that we offer

at 3 CR. So this guy's like deal, but out

of your control, Out of my control.

OK, So he gave it a few days, happened to be reading the

newspaper. He's American guy, something

happening in Kenya. So he took his journal and he

said, OK, father, this is the boldest prayer that I can pray.

And he wrote it down. He says, sent a message to Carl,

said today's day one of the six months.

And I know what I'm going to be praying for.

And after a couple of weeks, you know, you're sort of like you're

praying for Kenya, for Kenya, for Kenya.

So he thought, you know, there's a little bit on repeat.

I just want to find out a little bit about Kenya.

So he went and he started Googling it.

This thing was sort of churning in his mind, praying every

single day. And he was standing in a line at

a coffee shop and he could hear a person or two behind him.

Someone mentioned the word Kenya.

So he was wondering like, is this now, you know, one of the

Arabica blends or what, What's this Kenya about?

So he sort of starts leaning in and listening.

And she's talking about an orphanage.

So gets his coffee turns to her, said, hey, I heard you mentioned

Kenya. Tell me a little bit about it.

And this lady is like a saleswoman of notes.

Before the coffee was finished, he had agreed to go and see this

very orphanage that she was running in Kenya at his own

expense. Played, paid the plane ticket

accommodation, everything went to take a look at the place.

And so also the first thing you noticed was they didn't have any

medical supplies. So that's the industry that he's

in. So he worked out his laptop.

He sent a quick e-mail. The response to that e-mail was

20 million rans worth of medical supplies.

One e-mail, he's like, you're Carl.

Hey, you won't believe what happened, but 20 bar, but 20 bar

and Carl's like, yes, I just earned 10,000 rans.

He's like, no, no, no, I wasn't praying for that.

Like, oh, OK. So he's back home working hard

and he gets a phone call from this lady that's running the

orphanage. Would it be up to coming and

opening this orphan? You know, they sort of repainted

it. That changed some of the rooms

around. They got the medical supplies

and equipment and sort of changed the angle.

But they're going to do this official reopening.

Could he be the guest of honor? She's like, OK, I said, but this

time we paint. So they fly him out there.

He gets to attend the whole ribbon cut cutting thing.

What's the boldest pray that you could pray?

He finds he's not the only VIP invited there.

The Kenyan president is there as well.

She's like very awkward, you know, like he knows the guy by

name because he's been praying for the country and doing his

little bit of Wikipedia on Kenya.

And so the photo shoots and everything standing there next

to the president, he makes some small talk and then he he

properly oversteps the line, makes some very unhelpful

comments. And he can just see the

president's eyes glaze over and the security get a little bit

closer. And the president disappears

after the photo shoot and he just knows like he said

something he shouldn't have said.

So he's back home in America, having fun, making money, doing

his sales, praying everyday for the situation in Kenya.

Gets a phone call from the US State Department.

It's not before we have Sir, are you Charles or whatever?

Whatever. Yes, I am.

Were you in Kenya on this and this date?

Yes, I was. Did you make some inappropriate

comments about American political prisoners in Kenya to

the president of the nation? Yes, I did.

We just want to thank you. We have been trying to get them

released for years. One top of a comment, they're

coming home. We just wanted to say thank you

from the US government to Charles, thank you.

But you won't believe what just happened.

Carl's like, yes, 10,000 Rand. No, that's not what I was

praying for. I think it was like 10 days away

from the end of the six months, 10 days away from getting that

10 grand. And he gets a phone call from

the office of the President of Kenya.

We would love to invite you to come and join us for three days.

We got some delegates from around the world.

He needs to make some changes in his cabinet and he just would

love to have people pray for him over this three day process.

And then he said the following. He said because he is making

pressing changes to his government and Charles is like,

hey Carl, I owe you 10,000 Rand. Completely out of my control.

It was the great, the biggest, most boldest, most baddest

prayer he could think to pray a nation on the other side of the

planet that God would step in and deal with the corruption and

make the pressing changes in the government that are necessary.

One man praying, one prayer over six months and the nation was

changed. So Jesus says my prayer for

those who will believe in me through their message.

And that's my challenge. We can say, Lord, teach us to

pray, or we could say, Lord, this is how I will pray.

I will take one thing and pray for it every day for the next

six months and trust that you're not just the God of spin, but

that you are the God who can do exceedingly, abundantly above

what I could ask or imagine for your glory through all

generations. If I had to ask you, what name

comes to mind? Is there one?

Doesn't have to be a person's name.

It could be a neighbourhood, it could be a house that you walk

past whenever you're walking the dog and there's just something

there. It might be a government or an

MP, a politician that might be a school or a varsity or it might

be a name. This is my invitation.

Let's say, Father, teach us how to pray.

And let's trust that when we put his glory first, that this month

and this series could be a before and after season, that we

will say in the not too distant future, You remember before

August 24. Remember how Joe used to behave

before August 24? Remember how utterly impossible

it was that Paul Lafontaine could get saved before August

24? Remember how wayward Mariette

was? Can you remember that lecturer

in our first year? Has something changed in August

24? I believe this is the invitation

and I believe This is why we've gone into the deep end.

It's because if I can rally 5000 people, if we take this

morning's crowd and tonight's crowd, if I can rally 5000

people say, Father, how can your glory come in their life in that

situation? 5000 Can you imagine 5000 Kenyan

president situations exceedingly, abundantly above.

Can you imagine how God would be glorified in our city?

What if Jay was right that the city is not dead, it's just

dormant? What if this is our distress and

we're saying, Father, would you come?

Can you imagine if we begin to say, that's what I prayed for,

this is the person I prayed for, that's the department I pray

for, and God answers us in our distress.

So, Heavenly Father, I just want to bring this most magnificent

prayer that we've only just scratched the surface of.

If we were to look into this royal WhatsApp group, we would

see your heart for the city in ways that would surprise us.

We would see your heart for Joe and Paul and Mariette and

Caroline. It would take our breath away.

But I also believe we would see a God who is waiting for someone

to stand in the gap. And this morning I ask that we

AS3CI that me as Stephen would respond to that call to stand in

the gap so that you might be glorified in the city.

Father, we long for your presence.

We long that your Kingdom would come in Pretoria as it is in

heaven. We also long that you would

answer us in our distress, and so we invite you by your Holy

Spirit. Would you lead us?

Would you show us how we can cry out to you in such a way?

What request we could make of you that you would be most

glorified in US? In Jesus name, Amen.