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Have you ever felt like you’re standing outside in the rain, waiting for a breakthrough that just won’t come? Many of us stop praying because we don’t see results on our timeline, but we are encouraged to keep going. This message explores “supplication” prayer, or how to “build a case” in prayer with persistence and confidence.
Using the example of Nehemiah, we learn that effective prayer starts with remembering who God is, taking ownership of our own mistakes, and trusting that God is responsible for the big ideas He puts in our hearts. Whether you are facing a personal crisis or looking for a fresh start, learn how to draw a “circle” around your specific needs and stay persistent until the breakthrough happens.
Scripture References
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If you feel that what you have heard is for you, and you’d like to be involved, then we would love to hear from you. Why not join us each Sunday at 9.15am and 11am, or contact us at hello@freedomcapetown.co.za
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We are in, as a church, a teaching series.
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We talk in themes in our church for a few weeks,
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and we’re talking about this idea of circle makers.
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And at Circle Makers, we started this series last week.
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And Circle Makers is all about this idea of praying circles
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around your biggest fears and your greatest dreams.
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And I’m excited to open up the word for us today.
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But before I do, let me recap on where this idea
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of circle makers comes from.
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The idea comes from a story of a man in the first century BC before Jesus.
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And he was in ancient Israel.
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It hadn’t rained for a long time.
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There was a drought.
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And he stands in this dust and he draws a circle around himself in the dust.
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And basically he prays this prayer where he says,
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God, I’m not moving out of this circle until you send the rain.
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We need rain.
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God, I’m not moving until you send the rain.
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and the long story short is it rains and and I love this story because it it’s someone putting
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their reputation putting their faith on the line I don’t know if God’s ever invited you into one of
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those moments before where it feels like everyone’s looking at you looking like you’re a bit crazy
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and you just say I believe God’s going to come through and they go okay but sometimes we need
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these moments where we build our lives in such a way that we’re drawing circles around ourselves
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and saying, God, I’m not moving until you send the rain. And so we’re believing that through these
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days, as we’re teaching through this series, that God wants to break through in your life as well
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as mine. And listen, if you’re a guest in the room today, I’m just going to go ahead and suggest that
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there’s probably an area of your life that you’d like to see something different.
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Something shift, something change.
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An area where you’re wanting to see some breakthrough.
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Maybe that is outside of yourself, that is circumstantial.
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Or maybe that’s within your own heart, emotions, mind, that you feel overwhelmed.
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That you feel like you’re lacking peace.
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That you’re feeling like you’re wanting to see some things change.
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Guess what?
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We serve the God of the breakthrough.
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And so I’m believing that God is wanting to break through in some people’s lives today.
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And to just help get us set up for where we’re going.
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I was thinking about Honi praying for rain.
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There was a day I had a couple of years ago that I wish it wasn’t raining.
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I went on a long run a couple of years ago.
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I was training at the time.
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And so I’d already run for a long way.
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And then I thought, let me go.
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I ran back to my house.
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I took my dog.
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I was like, you know, he was crazy.
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So I was like, let’s run some energy out of you as well.
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So I take my dog on the run.
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We’re running around Rondebosch Common.
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And when I tell you it was raining,
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I mean, you know the kind of rain
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that you’re running this direction
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and the wind and rain is coming this direction
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and you feel like you’re basically standing still
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because it’s so intense.
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Like it’s that kind of rain that day.
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And so me and the dog, we’re running,
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we do another 10K.
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And so it is, I am wet.
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And I’m wearing one of these hydration vests.
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So I’ve got like some water here, zipped up some water.
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I’ve got some snacks in case I get a little hungry on the run.
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I’ve got my phone.
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I’ve got my keys.
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And so I’ve got my keys.
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So I run back home.
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And if you’ve ever done one of these long runs,
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or maybe you’ve done some kind of exercise for an extended period of time,
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you know you probably like get the last 30 minutes,
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and all you start thinking about is like,
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man, when I get home, that shower is going to be…
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And you start thinking about that cup of tea that you’re going to have or that coffee.
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You start thinking about all your food.
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So I run home.
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I take my keys out.
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And I press the button to open the gate in my house.
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But it’s been raining so bad that it has completely destroyed the key.
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I can’t get inside.
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Here’s the other problem.
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My dog was still young and chewed on everything at the time.
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And so we had two sets of keys.
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The day before, he chewed through the other set of keys.
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And so Meg is inside, can’t open the gate.
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I’m on the outside, can’t get in.
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And I can’t, I could like try and lift my dog to maybe get into the garden.
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He’s a big dog.
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He’s like nearly, he’s probably trimmed down a bit now, but he’s like 45, 50 kgs.
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So I like can’t like get this dog over the wall.
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I can’t climb over the wall.
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So I’m stuck on the outside of my house.
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And so we have to get hold of our landlords to try and come through.
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They were a little busy, so they took their time to get to us.
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So I’m just stood, no cover.
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The rain is horrendous.
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It is pouring down.
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And I am waiting outside for this house to open and get inside.
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And as I was thinking about this, let me share the verse I want to open up with for us today.
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Matthew 7, verse 7 and 8.
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It says, ask and it will be given to you.
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Seek and you will find.
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Knock.
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Someone say knock.
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Knock and the door will be opened to you.
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For everyone who asks, receives.
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The one who seeks, finds.
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And the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
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I was thinking about my unfortunate run whilst I’m waiting on the outside.
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And here’s what I thought to myself.
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I thought we can leave this verse up for now, Sam.
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Thank you.
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I was thinking about how on that day,
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there was nothing that was gonna stop me
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getting inside that house one way or the other.
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At some point, I was getting in the house
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and I was gonna keep trying to do everything
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I knew how to do to get in the house
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until I got in the house.
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And then I started to think about some of us
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when it comes to prayer.
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See, the Bible says that knock and the door will be opened to you.
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It doesn’t tell us how many times you have to knock.
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Sometimes some of us, when we pray, we stood outside in the rain.
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Because here’s the thing, I knew that day, I knew the promise was inside, not outside.
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I knew the promise of what, I was going to say what God had for me, what I had for me.
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The nice food and drink I had inside.
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I knew the promise was on the inside.
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But if I had given up after one attempt at trying to get inside the house,
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I would have spent all day sat outside in the rain feeling sorry for myself.
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When if I just kept on knocking, I would have got inside somehow.
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And I think for some of us in church today, you’ve knocked in prayer.
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You’ve believed for some things in prayer.
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You’ve trusted God for some things in prayer.
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And you’re still sat outside of the house, but you’ve given up knocking.
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Because you think, well, maybe, maybe this is,
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see, the way as Christians we get around trying feeling disappointed about these things
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is we say things like, well, maybe this is just not God’s will.
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And so it would be like me on that day, the key breaks,
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and I try and get in my house, and I say,
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well, maybe it’s just not God’s will for me to go inside today.
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If the promise is on the inside, why am I still on the outside?
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It’s because I haven’t got a figured away in yet.
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And what I want to do today is I want to talk to us a little bit about a type of prayer
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that I want to show you that is going to get you inside the house.
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That is going to teach you how to keep knocking.
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I want to talk to you today a little bit about how we can build a case in prayer before God.
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because I think if we can grasp this,
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if you’re a Christian in the room,
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or even if you’re not,
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I think there’s someone here for you today
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because I know a lot of atheists who pray
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when crisis hits their life.
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They go, Lord, I don’t know if you’re there,
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but just in case,
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if you bring me through this one,
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I’ll follow you.
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Then they come through,
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it’s like, that could have been me.
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So I think all of us pray at some point.
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The question is,
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How do I approach this kind of prayer?
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So I want to show you just a verse that I think is a powerful verse.
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But before I do, let me just give you the title of my message today.
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And the title of my message is this.
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Just keep knocking.
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Just keep knocking.
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If you’re a guest in the room, I’m going to make you feel uncomfortable for a second.
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Church people, you know.
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Tell the person next to you, just keep knocking.
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Just keep knocking.
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Sometimes you just got to keep knocking until you see the promise come through.
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I want to show you 1 Timothy 2 verse 1.
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It shows us four different types of prayer that we see in the Bible.
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It says this,
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Therefore I exhort or encourage, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercession, and giving of thanks be made for all men.
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It’s four different types of prayer the Bible describes.
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Supplication, prayers, maybe in your translation it might say petitions.
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It’s the same kind of word.
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I just want to use this word to help us out today.
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Supplications, prayers, intercession, and giving of thanks be made for all people.
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The word prayer here in the Greek is this word like conversational prayer.
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That I have the type of ongoing prayers that I have with God where I just kind of throw thoughts his way.
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The Bible says pray without ceasing.
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So I’m just in constant conversation with God.
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The word intercession here, or we may get more into this next week, is the kind of prayer that talks about being someone who has the authority of the king.
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And being able to use that authority, almost like an ambassador goes to a country with the authority of a king.
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Giving of thanks.
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Giving of thanks.
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I don’t need to explain that one to you guys.
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Being grateful to God for what he’s done.
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But this word supplication is an interesting word when it comes to prayer.
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And this in the Greek, this word supplication is this word desis.
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And the word desis, if we can bring that up, the word desis in the Greek says,
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to beg or implore of God.
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And for some of us, that messes with our head because you go, well, I’ve got authority in Jesus.
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I’m a son of God. I’m a daughter of God.
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Why would I need to beg or implore anything of God?
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And yet, for those of you who have been in a moment of crisis, you know exactly what this feels like.
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Because there is a certain motivation in our hearts when we are going through something that causes us grief,
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that you know what it means to supplicate.
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You know what it means to pray.
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You know what it means to believe for breakthrough when you’re going through something.
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I love this story in Luke chapter 18.
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Jesus tells a parable of someone he calls the persistent widow.
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I want to pull the verses up here.
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Luke chapter 18 verse 4 to 7.
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The story starts that this woman, she was persistent for justice.
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She wanted to see the injustice gone.
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And she needed to see something change.
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And it’s talking about how she’s gone to this judge, this master.
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And so it says this.
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For some time he refused to give her justice.
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But finally he said to himself,
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even though I don’t fear God or care what people think,
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yet because this widow keeps bothering me.
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I love that.
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She won’t give up.
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She just keeps on bothering me.
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I will see that she gets justice
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so that she won’t eventually come and attack me.
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Have you ever prayed like you’re about to attack something?
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That’s the kind of prayer that God’s inviting.
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He says, when you are in a moment
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where you need to see breakthrough,
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some of you know this kind of prayer,
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where you need to, see, some of us pray prayers like,
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we’re like, yeah, God, if you wanna do that, cool,
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but if not, fine, whatever.
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Like some of us pray that kind of prayer.
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Others of us, we know we need to see something change.
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We know we need to see breakthrough.
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And it’s like you’re on the attack.
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You’re ready to, it’s like, God, I need to,
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What’s going on here?
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That’s supplication.
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And the Lord said, listen to what the unjust judge says.
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And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones who cry out to him?
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How often?
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Day and night.
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Will he keep putting them off?
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By the way, the answer is no.
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Just in case you missed out on the insinuation here.
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He will not.
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I was thinking about why do we pray?
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God knows what we need.
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He knows the breakthrough we need.
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Jesus, even when he’s teaching us to pray,
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he teaches us to pray this prayer.
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Your kingdom come, your will be done
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on earth as it is in heaven.
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So if we don’t pray, is the kingdom not gonna come?
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I think it probably will.
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I think like the Bible says that if we don’t praise him, even the rocks will cry out.
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Like, are we big enough to get in the way of God’s promises coming to pass?
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I don’t think we are.
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So why do we pray?
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Why should you and I pray for the things that we think God has promised to us?
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Why should we pray?
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Here’s why I think we should pray.
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Does my prayer change God’s promises one way or the other?
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No, it does not.
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But can I change the timeline with which I see the promise?
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I believe I can.
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When I pray for God’s kingdom to come,
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I think I’m quickening the pace at which we see his coming.
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We see this in the book of Daniel.
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When he starts praying, there is spiritual warfare going on.
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And the angel comes and he says,
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from the day you started praying and fasting, we were coming.
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But it took all these days for us to get to you because we were powered by your prayers.
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It’s a slight paraphrase, but that’s essentially what the angel says to Daniel.
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What he’s saying is the promise is available.
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The pace is optional.
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The pace at which you’re going to step into the promises of God is often connected to how we pray.
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Anyone with me this morning?
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I want to see the breakthrough.
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I think God invites us in to quicken the pace.
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He invites us in to see his kingdom advance.
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If our prayers made no difference,
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if there was no quickening of the pace, why pray?
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When you pray, things happen, friends.
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When you pray, you quicken the pace.
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Let me give you an example.
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When my daughter on a Thursday asks me
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if she can have any chocolate
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and I tell her she can have some on the weekend,
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it really depends how fickle I’m feeling
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because then she’ll do this thing she rolls out for me
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she goes no please no please please no please please no please please
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no please please and it depends how persistent she is
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I just got to be parent fails maybe I know
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but occasionally if I’m feeling like oh fine
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it’s gonna did it change the promise no but it quickened the pace
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the promise is there it’s ready and available
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Some of us, we’re outside. It’s raining.
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How much do you want to get on the inside of the promise?
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Sometimes God invites us to draw us near and close.
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And this journey of supplication is not because He wants to punish us.
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He’s angry at us. He’s distant from us.
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It’s because in supplication, we come to really understand the heart of God.
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It’s when you have this heart stirring within you,
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that as you supplicate, you start to realize,
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No, no, no. He really wants to break through for me.
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No, I start to see him differently.
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And I want to show you from the first part of the Bible, the Old Testament,
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someone who prays this kind of prayer in a powerful way.
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And I want to just show you from the first chapter of Nehemiah,
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how he prays and builds a case before God in prayer to see breakthrough.
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And here’s my encouragement to you.
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As a church, we’re praying through till Wednesday.
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We’re praying and fasting.
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If you want to jump in those days, I’d encourage you to do it.
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And here’s how I want you to pray.
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I want you to build a case before God.
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That whatever your circles that you’re drawing, that you’re going to build a case before God.
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So are you ready to read the Bible with me this morning?
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Nehemiah chapter 1.
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And we’re going to start off, I think, from verse 3 and 4.
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It says this.
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Nehemiah, just context.
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He’s here in a time when the people of God, the Israelites, were in exile.
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And he hears about the walls of Jerusalem have been broken down.
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And it’s a promise that God has that they’re going to protect the people of God.
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And he is heartbroken.
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So it says this, verse 3.
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They said to me, those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace.
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The walls of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates have been burned with fire.
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When I heard these things, I sat down and wept.
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For some days I mourned, fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven.
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I mourned, fasted, and wept.
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I love that the posture here as we’re in this time of prayer and fasting is that he chooses to pray and fast.
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But I’ve talked a little bit about it.
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I’m just going to move some slides around for you guys at the back.
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But I just want us to reflect on why pray in this kind of way.
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Nehemiah is heartbroken.
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Crisis has hit.
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And this is not a personal crisis, though it feels personal.
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This is a crisis about the promise of God.
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This is a crisis about his people.
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And I had this thought as I was preparing.
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The crisis will lead you to worry or to supplication.
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You just throw that one up for me, team of the back.
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The crisis will lead you to worry or to prayer or to supplication.
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And so let me just expand on that for a moment.
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Worry projects the worst case scenario into your future.
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That when crisis hits your life, some of you know this,
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You’re figuring out maybe you lost your income.
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Or maybe your income was reduced.
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Or maybe someone saw in your life some things that they didn’t like and you lost a relationship.
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You lost a friendship.
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Maybe something happened to you.
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Crisis hit your life and it will lead you to worry.
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And what worry does is you start to project forward the worst case scenario.
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It’s funny, isn’t it?
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we rarely project the best case scenario in crisis.
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Crisis hits our life.
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It’s like, how much better could this get?
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It’s often time we project worry.
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We project our anxieties into the future.
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But supplication, this type of prayer,
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is something different.
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Supplication is motivated by a grieving spirit
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and an unshakable confidence.
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Supplication is motivated by a grieving spirit and an unshakable confidence.
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It’s not ignoring the reality of the situation.
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It’s not ignoring my need for breakthrough.
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It’s not even ignoring that I believe that often, can I say it this way?
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I think, and we’ll come on to this with Nehemiah,
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but I think some of us, we’re grieving some things
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because we felt God promised them to us in the first place and we haven’t seen it.
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Oftentimes, as Christians, we don’t grieve things when we don’t.
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We grieve because it didn’t hit our expectation.
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We’re disappointed because we didn’t see God come through in the way.
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And so we feel those things.
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But supplication, prayer, instead of turning to worry,
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we turn and we say, God, this is how I’m feeling.
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But I have an unshakable confidence that your promise is still true.
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I don’t now doubt your promise because I’m grieving.
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I still trust in your
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I still have an unshakable confidence
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about who you are
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I still have an unshakable confidence about
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your ability to come through for me
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I’ve just got to tell you I’m going to pray some prayers
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just now and they’re going to be a little bit sad
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I’m going to grieve
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as I pray but I’m going to have an unshakable
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confidence so it’s going to compel me
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to pray with greater emotion
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and urgency
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I’ve seen people supplicate pray
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in a way and tears are rolling down their face because they haven’t seen the promise yet but they
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know that God’s going to make it happen. Those are powerful prayers friends. That takes you from
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praying in a way without expectation to praying with such confidence that God’s going to come
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through and I’m stirred and emotional about the fact that he hasn’t yet. And that’s what we see
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in Nehemiah’s prayer that he prays just now.
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Let’s read Nehemiah 1 verse 5 to 11.
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He says,
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Then I said, Lord, the God of heaven,
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the great and awesome God,
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who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him
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and keep his commandments.
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Let your ear be attentive and your eyes open
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to hear the prayer your servant is praying
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before you day and night for your servants,
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the people of Israel.
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confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s family, have committed against you.
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We have acted very wickedly towards you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees, and laws you gave
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your servant Moses. Remember the instruction you gave your servant, saying, if you are unfaithful,
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I will scatter you among the nations. But if you return to me and obey my commands, then even
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your exiled people at the farthest horizon. I will gather them from there and bring them to a place
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I have chosen as a dwelling for my name. They are your servants and your people whom you redeemed by
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your great strength and your mighty hand. Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this
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your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant
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success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man. I was cut bearer to the king. So
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Nehemiah prays this prayer and what I want to just break down for you now is four ways that
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Nehemiah presented a case before God in prayer and I believe these are ways that you and I can do the
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same thing so that we can pray to see breakthrough. You with me? Let me give you the first way
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that we’re going to pray and present a case before God.
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The first thing that Nehemiah prays here is a prayer,
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and this is the prayer.
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It’s basically, God, this is who you are.
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That’s the first thing he prays.
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This is who you are.
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Not really reminding God of who he is,
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but reminding himself of who God is.
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Let’s just read that again in Nehemiah 1 verse 5.
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It says,
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it says this Nehemiah 1 verse 5
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then I said Lord the God of heaven
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the great and awesome God
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who keeps his covenant of love
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with those who love him
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and keep his commandments
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the first way that Nehemiah approaches God
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is to say God I remember who you are
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I remember who you are
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some of us we struggle to pray big prayers
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because we forget how big our God is
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in a moment where you need to see breakthrough sometimes we imagine God to be too small we limit
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our possibilities to how we can imagine seeing things change and so so we’re praying to a God
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who is far smaller than the reality of who he is it’s an issue of imagination it’s also primarily
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an issue of theology and doctrine but it’s also an issue of imagination we we picture God to only
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be able to work within the confines that we see today? We’ve seen, Meg and I, we’ve seen God provide
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in miraculous ways many times in our life, and none of them we could have imagined. None of them
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we could have, if we sat down with a planning document, we say, how are we going to make this
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happen? None of these ideas would have been the ways that God had. But God had a better plan, a
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different plan. Sometimes a plan that drew us into more faith. Oftentimes a plan that produced more
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trust in our hearts. But we needed to imagine to see who he was. And some of us, we jump straight
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to God, I need breakthrough. But we forget to just consider who is the God I’m praying to?
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How big is he? How powerful? Let me just remind you, friends, when you pray,
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You prayed to the same God, the book of Exodus says,
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that blew his nostrils and the Red Sea parted.
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One of my favorite verses in the Bible,
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because it feels so silly.
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The Lord’s just there, Moses is freaking out.
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How do we get part?
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The Egyptians are there, God, you told me to do this
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and I’ve got a million people that you told me to take care of.
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What are we gonna do?
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And the Lord’s just like, oh, you know,
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it’s like, he’s not afraid of your crisis.
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He’s not concerned about your current anxieties.
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He’s not worried about your worry.
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He blew His nose and the Red Sea parted.
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He spoke and creation obeyed Him and came into existence.
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And the problem is when we miss His bigness,
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then we fear the things of the world, but we do not fear God.
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And when we have the fear of the Lord in our hearts,
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we come before Him.
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Because sometimes when I talk in a way,
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It’s like sometimes I’ll teach and I’ll say,
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the book of Lamentations,
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you’ve got to be able to lament before God.
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Or if you’re coming to supplicate,
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you’ve got to be able to bring your emotions to God.
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And that is all true.
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But the problem is if we do not first understand who He is,
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then sometimes we can approach God in an irreverent way.
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And we come to God and we start,
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I’ve even heard people pray and demand that God does things.
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Say, hey, are you sure you want to be?
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playing those games.
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Because if we understand the authority we have in Jesus,
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sometimes we misunderstand where that authority comes from.
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So when we pray,
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and you’re building a case in prayer before God,
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please first come and remind yourself who He is.
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He is powerful.
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He has all authority.
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He is sovereign, meaning He is in charge.
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That He holds together creation.
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and so when you pray and you’re in crisis yeah sure you could worry or you could come before
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the king of glory and say lord i’ll be honest i’m terrified just now but here’s the thing
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i’m excited to see you come through i’m ready i’m posturing myself for a breakthrough i’m i’m
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grieving now but i still have an unshakable confidence second thing nehemiah does
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is Nehemiah prays a simple prayer
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that some of us need to pray today.
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And it’s this, I repent.
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I repent.
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Repentance is this word meaning I’m changing direction.
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We were going one way and we need to go another.
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Nehemiah 1 verse 6, the second part of 6 through to 7.
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It says, let your ear be attentive
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and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servant,
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Your servant is praying before you day and night, the people of Israel.
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And then he says this,
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I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s family, have committed against you.
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We have acted very wickedly towards you.
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We have not obeyed the commands, decrees, and laws you gave your servant Moses.
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I think part of building a case before God in prayer for breakthrough is also taking ownership.
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Some of us, we need breakthrough in our finances
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and it’s because you got yourself in a financial mess.
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And it’s not just the case of saying,
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I need to do, see, we do this,
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let me just speak on finances for a moment.
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We dig ourselves into a hole
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and then instead of repenting,
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owning it and praying,
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we think the same person who dug themselves this hole
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is gonna be able to dig themselves out of it.
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You, if your wisdom got you into this mess,
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maybe a wiser one can get you out.
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We need to repent.
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Repentance is not a dangerous word.
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It’s not a condemnationary word.
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It is a life-giving word.
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It’s a word that says, God, I’m taking ownership.
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Again, I love it.
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Nehemiah didn’t just put it on the nation.
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I confess the sins we Israelites,
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including myself and my father’s family,
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have committed against you. I’ve got to take ownership. Now some of us, let me just pause for
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a second. Some of you, you are in a mess and it’s not because of anything you did to you, it’s something
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someone else did to you. And let me just be clear, I’m not talking to you when it comes to repentance.
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It may be that you need to go on a journey of healing and in time forgiveness, but not repentance.
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But for those of us who manage to get ourselves into the crisis that we’re in,
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that we want to see breakthrough within,
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owning it in prayer is a valuable thing.
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Because it says, Lord, when you bring me through this one,
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I need to learn to live differently.
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I don’t want to keep doing the same things the same way.
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I want to change.
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And so I’m owning this today.
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And I’m sorry, God.
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And I confess my sin.
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sin of rebellion, someone else, you know, sometimes someone will come and speak some wisdom in your
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life and you ignore it and then you find yourself in a crisis and you look back and go, man,
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maybe the Lord sent that person to come and speak a life into this situation. Repent. Number three,
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the third thing, this is probably my favorite one and one of the prayers I’ve prayed so many times
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in my life and it’s this prayer this is the building a case before God we say this this
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was not my idea this was not my idea Nehemiah 1 verse 8 to 9 says remember the instruction you
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gave your servant Moses saying if you are unfaithful I will scatter you among the nations
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but if you return to me and obey my commands,
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then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon,
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I will gather them from there
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and bring them to the place I’ve chosen
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as a dwelling for my name.
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What’s Nehemiah saying?
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He’s saying, God, I just want to remind you
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of what you said to Moses.
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I want to remind you, what’s he saying?
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This wasn’t my idea.
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You gathering us, this was not my idea.
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The walls of Jerusalem, that was not my idea.
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This was your idea.
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Let me talk as a pastor for a moment.
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I’ve had many times in many church gatherings where I’ve sat there and gone,
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Lord, this was not my idea.
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This is on you to build this house.
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This was not my idea.
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I didn’t come up with the idea of the church.
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I didn’t come up with the idea of us planting a church.
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Frankly, Lord, I didn’t even come up with the idea of you moving two Brits from the UK to Cape Town to pastor a church.
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None of this was my idea.
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this is on you. If it was not my idea, it is not my responsibility to deliver on it.
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If it was not my idea, it is his burden to carry, not mine. Can I show you guys a picture? Just
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again, I got sent by our associate pastor, Hunty. He sent me a picture last night that I wanted to
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show you. You just throw that picture up on the screen, Sam. Some of you will struggle to see it,
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But I’ll explain it to you.
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You can see this is a message that Hanti was sharing.
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I’m not 100% sure.
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I think it was about three years ago.
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And he sent me this.
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And what you can see in the picture is him preaching.
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And there are two people in the service.
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Those two people are me and my wife Meg.
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The two pastors.
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This is two people.
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And so this was us in a church service on a Sunday morning about three years ago.
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And now I’m sure if you scanned over a little bit, you might see a few more people.
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This was not the extent or size of our church three years ago.
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We had amazing times. God moved in power.
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It was incredible.
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We would often, the plant team, as they planted the church,
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within about a year, they had about 80 people gathering.
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COVID hit and then brought in some rookie pastors.
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And Meg and I managed to take down the size of the church by a few people.
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And so we had about two, three years of building church.
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And I don’t know if you can see my head is down praying.
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And I think I was praying something like, Lord, this was not my idea.
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This was not my idea.
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Lord, I think you want us to reach more people with your love.
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And so it’s on you.
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The Bible says,
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The Lord does not build his house.
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Those who labor, labor in vain.
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And so we’re sat here today on a Sunday in our first service
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where maybe there’s going to be 140 odd people with kids.
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We’re probably going to see about another 100, 110 people.
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in the second service that we have today.
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Now, this is not the extent of the vision in our hearts.
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We’re believing for more.
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But I share this to say that maybe in your life,
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in a certain area of your life,
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let’s just bring the picture back up for a moment, Sam.
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Maybe for a certain area of your life,
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this is how the big dream feels just now.
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Or maybe in your finances,
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you’re believing for fullness and it feels a little empty.
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And you’re in the middle of the month
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and you’ve got seven rand left and you’re saying,
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Lord, I’m believing for the promise.
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I’m stood out in the rain today
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and I’m believing for breakthrough.
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But the health of my finances, this was not my idea.
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I believe it was yours.
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Lord, the restoration of the relationship,
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even though I was praying for it this week
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and then I had an even worse argument
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in the middle of prayer and fasting, believing for restoration.
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but God I just want to tell you something
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this was not my idea
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this was your idea
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and this is where you start to pray some of these prayers
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and maybe you take it outside of yourself
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because I’ve had times where I have wept
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as I’ve thought about a lost generation
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that is giving itself over to lust and sin and darkness
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when the kingdom of God is ready to advance into their lives
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and I’ve supplicated and I’ve prayed and I’ve wept
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and I’ve said, Lord, what are we going to do here?
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And I believe as I’m praying, I’m saying, God, this is in my heart,
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but this was not my idea.
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This is your idea.
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God, you’ve got to do something.
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And prayers of supplication, they come from a grieving spirit,
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but also an unshakable confidence.
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They say, God, I’m not seeing it now, but I believe I’m going to.
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I’m going to keep knocking, even though I’m not seeing it yet.
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You will not deter me from knocking.
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I’m going to be, if you stick around long enough,
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you’re going to see me for the next 60 years of my life.
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And guess what I’m going to do?
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I’m just keep knocking.
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I’m just going to keep knocking
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because there’s more people who need the love of Jesus.
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I was sharing with our team this morning.
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I was talking to one of my friends.
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They were talking about a particular ministry area of our church earlier in the year.
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We’ve really got to see this work this year.
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We’ve really got to see this part.
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I really think we need to see that work in a great way this year.
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And as he was saying it, I thought, I want to see it work, but we don’t have to.
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Because I’m going to be here for the next 34 years trying to make this thing work.
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So if it doesn’t happen this year, it’s going to happen next year.
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And if it doesn’t happen next year, it’s going to happen a year after.
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We’re going to figure it.
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Because he’ll build his house.
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And I’m just going to be a part of it.
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Just keep knocking.
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If you’re starting there today,
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whatever area that is for your life,
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just keep knocking.
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Final thing that Nehemiah says,
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final type of prayer that I want to show you,
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is he prays a prayer.
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And I’d say it this way.
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I want to encourage you to be specific.
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Or another way of saying it in this series
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would be to say, draw a circle.
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Nehemiah 1 verse 11, it says,
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Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant
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and to the prayer of your servant to delight in revering your name.
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And this is where he’s specific.
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Give your servant success today, not tomorrow, today,
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by granting him favor in the presence of this man, the king.
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Lord, I need favor as I go and talk to this man today.
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I’m going to have the courage to do it.
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I was talking with a friend this week in the Circle Makers series
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and she’d drawn out a bunch of circles
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and written out specific things
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she was praying for this week in circles
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so that she could be specific.
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I want to encourage you this week,
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if you want to see breakthrough, be specific.
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I’ve reflected recently.
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Meg, I’ve heard a couple of times preach on the idea,
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the concept of healing,
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that God wants to heal people physically.
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And she would say oftentimes as Christians,
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we’ll pray things like,
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If somebody’s healing, Lord, we pray for healing today.
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But if not healing, we pray for peace for this person.
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And if not peace, we pray for comfort.
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And she would say, which one?
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The Lord’s up there like, do you want the healing?
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Do you want the peace?
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Do you want the comfort?
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Like which one?
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Which do you want?
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Be specific.
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What are you believing for breakthrough?
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And then guess what?
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Keep knocking.
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Don’t settle.
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Don’t sit in the rain when the promise is inside.
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saying, Lord, if you don’t open the door,
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I’m coming through the roof.
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If the roof’s closed, I’m going through the window.
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I’m getting to the promise.
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I believe you want to come through.
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I’m drawing near.
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And that’s the key.
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We’re drawing near.
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We’re drawing near.
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And as you draw nearer, you go, oh, look at his heart.
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Look at how good he is.
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Look at how wonderful Jesus is.
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And we draw nearer to him.
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And that’s my prayer for us as a church in this time,
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that you would draw nearer to Jesus,
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that you would find life in Jesus.
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Amen.
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Amen.
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And I want to pray for us as we close this message today.
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Let me pray for us as a church family.
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Would you close your eyes with me, Lord Jesus?
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I thank you that you’re drawing us near.
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God, that we are, we have an invitation from you today.
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We’re going to find life in you, that you are the God of the breakthrough.
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God, that you have the fullness of life for us, Jesus.
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And we want to step into it.
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Every person, Lord, believing for breakthrough, I pray,
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that you draw them nearer through prayers of supplication this week,
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building a case before you in prayer,
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that we would see who you are, that we would repent, own the things.
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God, that we would remind ourselves that it is on you to do it,
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and that we would be specific in our prayers.
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God, take us on that journey, I pray.
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Legenda Adriana Zanotto
We are in, as a church, a teaching series.
00:03
We talk in themes in our church for a few weeks,
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and we’re talking about this idea of circle makers.
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And at Circle Makers, we started this series last week.
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And Circle Makers is all about this idea of praying circles
00:18
around your biggest fears and your greatest dreams.
00:21
And I’m excited to open up the word for us today.
00:25
But before I do, let me recap on where this idea
00:28
of circle makers comes from.
00:29
The idea comes from a story of a man in the first century BC before Jesus.
00:37
And he was in ancient Israel.
00:39
It hadn’t rained for a long time.
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There was a drought.
00:42
And he stands in this dust and he draws a circle around himself in the dust.
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And basically he prays this prayer where he says,
00:50
God, I’m not moving out of this circle until you send the rain.
00:55
We need rain.
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God, I’m not moving until you send the rain.
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and the long story short is it rains and and I love this story because it it’s someone putting
01:05
their reputation putting their faith on the line I don’t know if God’s ever invited you into one of
01:12
those moments before where it feels like everyone’s looking at you looking like you’re a bit crazy
01:16
and you just say I believe God’s going to come through and they go okay but sometimes we need
01:23
these moments where we build our lives in such a way that we’re drawing circles around ourselves
01:29
and saying, God, I’m not moving until you send the rain. And so we’re believing that through these
01:36
days, as we’re teaching through this series, that God wants to break through in your life as well
01:43
as mine. And listen, if you’re a guest in the room today, I’m just going to go ahead and suggest that
01:50
there’s probably an area of your life that you’d like to see something different.
01:54
Something shift, something change.
01:56
An area where you’re wanting to see some breakthrough.
01:59
Maybe that is outside of yourself, that is circumstantial.
02:02
Or maybe that’s within your own heart, emotions, mind, that you feel overwhelmed.
02:08
That you feel like you’re lacking peace.
02:10
That you’re feeling like you’re wanting to see some things change.
02:12
Guess what?
02:13
We serve the God of the breakthrough.
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And so I’m believing that God is wanting to break through in some people’s lives today.
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And to just help get us set up for where we’re going.
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I was thinking about Honi praying for rain.
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There was a day I had a couple of years ago that I wish it wasn’t raining.
02:32
I went on a long run a couple of years ago.
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I was training at the time.
02:37
And so I’d already run for a long way.
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And then I thought, let me go.
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I ran back to my house.
02:43
I took my dog.
02:44
I was like, you know, he was crazy.
02:46
So I was like, let’s run some energy out of you as well.
02:48
So I take my dog on the run.
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We’re running around Rondebosch Common.
02:53
And when I tell you it was raining,
02:55
I mean, you know the kind of rain
02:57
that you’re running this direction
02:59
and the wind and rain is coming this direction
03:01
and you feel like you’re basically standing still
03:03
because it’s so intense.
03:04
Like it’s that kind of rain that day.
03:07
And so me and the dog, we’re running,
03:09
we do another 10K.
03:11
And so it is, I am wet.
03:14
And I’m wearing one of these hydration vests.
03:16
So I’ve got like some water here, zipped up some water.
03:20
I’ve got some snacks in case I get a little hungry on the run.
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I’ve got my phone.
03:24
I’ve got my keys.
03:25
And so I’ve got my keys.
03:26
So I run back home.
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And if you’ve ever done one of these long runs,
03:31
or maybe you’ve done some kind of exercise for an extended period of time,
03:35
you know you probably like get the last 30 minutes,
03:38
and all you start thinking about is like,
03:41
man, when I get home, that shower is going to be…
03:44
And you start thinking about that cup of tea that you’re going to have or that coffee.
03:47
You start thinking about all your food.
03:49
So I run home.
03:51
I take my keys out.
03:52
And I press the button to open the gate in my house.
03:56
But it’s been raining so bad that it has completely destroyed the key.
04:01
I can’t get inside.
04:03
Here’s the other problem.
04:05
My dog was still young and chewed on everything at the time.
04:09
And so we had two sets of keys.
04:11
The day before, he chewed through the other set of keys.
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And so Meg is inside, can’t open the gate.
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I’m on the outside, can’t get in.
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And I can’t, I could like try and lift my dog to maybe get into the garden.
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He’s a big dog.
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He’s like nearly, he’s probably trimmed down a bit now, but he’s like 45, 50 kgs.
04:31
So I like can’t like get this dog over the wall.
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I can’t climb over the wall.
04:37
So I’m stuck on the outside of my house.
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And so we have to get hold of our landlords to try and come through.
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They were a little busy, so they took their time to get to us.
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So I’m just stood, no cover.
04:52
The rain is horrendous.
04:54
It is pouring down.
04:56
And I am waiting outside for this house to open and get inside.
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And as I was thinking about this, let me share the verse I want to open up with for us today.
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Matthew 7, verse 7 and 8.
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It says, ask and it will be given to you.
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Seek and you will find.
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Knock.
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Someone say knock.
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Knock and the door will be opened to you.
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For everyone who asks, receives.
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The one who seeks, finds.
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And the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
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I was thinking about my unfortunate run whilst I’m waiting on the outside.
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And here’s what I thought to myself.
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I thought we can leave this verse up for now, Sam.
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Thank you.
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I was thinking about how on that day,
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there was nothing that was gonna stop me
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getting inside that house one way or the other.
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At some point, I was getting in the house
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and I was gonna keep trying to do everything
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I knew how to do to get in the house
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until I got in the house.
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And then I started to think about some of us
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when it comes to prayer.
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See, the Bible says that knock and the door will be opened to you.
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It doesn’t tell us how many times you have to knock.
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Sometimes some of us, when we pray, we stood outside in the rain.
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Because here’s the thing, I knew that day, I knew the promise was inside, not outside.
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I knew the promise of what, I was going to say what God had for me, what I had for me.
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The nice food and drink I had inside.
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I knew the promise was on the inside.
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But if I had given up after one attempt at trying to get inside the house,
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I would have spent all day sat outside in the rain feeling sorry for myself.
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When if I just kept on knocking, I would have got inside somehow.
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And I think for some of us in church today, you’ve knocked in prayer.
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You’ve believed for some things in prayer.
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You’ve trusted God for some things in prayer.
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And you’re still sat outside of the house, but you’ve given up knocking.
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Because you think, well, maybe, maybe this is,
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see, the way as Christians we get around trying feeling disappointed about these things
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is we say things like, well, maybe this is just not God’s will.
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And so it would be like me on that day, the key breaks,
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and I try and get in my house, and I say,
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well, maybe it’s just not God’s will for me to go inside today.
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If the promise is on the inside, why am I still on the outside?
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It’s because I haven’t got a figured away in yet.
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And what I want to do today is I want to talk to us a little bit about a type of prayer
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that I want to show you that is going to get you inside the house.
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That is going to teach you how to keep knocking.
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I want to talk to you today a little bit about how we can build a case in prayer before God.
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because I think if we can grasp this,
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if you’re a Christian in the room,
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or even if you’re not,
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I think there’s someone here for you today
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because I know a lot of atheists who pray
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when crisis hits their life.
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They go, Lord, I don’t know if you’re there,
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but just in case,
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if you bring me through this one,
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I’ll follow you.
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Then they come through,
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it’s like, that could have been me.
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So I think all of us pray at some point.
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The question is,
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How do I approach this kind of prayer?
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So I want to show you just a verse that I think is a powerful verse.
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But before I do, let me just give you the title of my message today.
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And the title of my message is this.
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Just keep knocking.
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Just keep knocking.
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If you’re a guest in the room, I’m going to make you feel uncomfortable for a second.
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Church people, you know.
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Tell the person next to you, just keep knocking.
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Just keep knocking.
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Sometimes you just got to keep knocking until you see the promise come through.
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I want to show you 1 Timothy 2 verse 1.
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It shows us four different types of prayer that we see in the Bible.
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It says this,
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Therefore I exhort or encourage, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercession, and giving of thanks be made for all men.
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It’s four different types of prayer the Bible describes.
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Supplication, prayers, maybe in your translation it might say petitions.
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It’s the same kind of word.
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I just want to use this word to help us out today.
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Supplications, prayers, intercession, and giving of thanks be made for all people.
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The word prayer here in the Greek is this word like conversational prayer.
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That I have the type of ongoing prayers that I have with God where I just kind of throw thoughts his way.
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The Bible says pray without ceasing.
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So I’m just in constant conversation with God.
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The word intercession here, or we may get more into this next week, is the kind of prayer that talks about being someone who has the authority of the king.
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And being able to use that authority, almost like an ambassador goes to a country with the authority of a king.
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Giving of thanks.
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Giving of thanks.
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I don’t need to explain that one to you guys.
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Being grateful to God for what he’s done.
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But this word supplication is an interesting word when it comes to prayer.
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And this in the Greek, this word supplication is this word desis.
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And the word desis, if we can bring that up, the word desis in the Greek says,
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to beg or implore of God.
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And for some of us, that messes with our head because you go, well, I’ve got authority in Jesus.
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I’m a son of God. I’m a daughter of God.
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Why would I need to beg or implore anything of God?
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And yet, for those of you who have been in a moment of crisis, you know exactly what this feels like.
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Because there is a certain motivation in our hearts when we are going through something that causes us grief,
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that you know what it means to supplicate.
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You know what it means to pray.
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You know what it means to believe for breakthrough when you’re going through something.
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I love this story in Luke chapter 18.
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Jesus tells a parable of someone he calls the persistent widow.
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I want to pull the verses up here.
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Luke chapter 18 verse 4 to 7.
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The story starts that this woman, she was persistent for justice.
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She wanted to see the injustice gone.
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And she needed to see something change.
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And it’s talking about how she’s gone to this judge, this master.
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And so it says this.
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For some time he refused to give her justice.
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But finally he said to himself,
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even though I don’t fear God or care what people think,
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yet because this widow keeps bothering me.
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I love that.
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She won’t give up.
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She just keeps on bothering me.
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I will see that she gets justice
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so that she won’t eventually come and attack me.
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Have you ever prayed like you’re about to attack something?
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That’s the kind of prayer that God’s inviting.
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He says, when you are in a moment
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where you need to see breakthrough,
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some of you know this kind of prayer,
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where you need to, see, some of us pray prayers like,
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we’re like, yeah, God, if you wanna do that, cool,
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but if not, fine, whatever.
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Like some of us pray that kind of prayer.
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Others of us, we know we need to see something change.
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We know we need to see breakthrough.
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And it’s like you’re on the attack.
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You’re ready to, it’s like, God, I need to,
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What’s going on here?
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That’s supplication.
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And the Lord said, listen to what the unjust judge says.
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And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones who cry out to him?
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How often?
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Day and night.
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Will he keep putting them off?
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By the way, the answer is no.
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Just in case you missed out on the insinuation here.
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He will not.
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I was thinking about why do we pray?
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God knows what we need.
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He knows the breakthrough we need.
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Jesus, even when he’s teaching us to pray,
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he teaches us to pray this prayer.
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Your kingdom come, your will be done
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on earth as it is in heaven.
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So if we don’t pray, is the kingdom not gonna come?
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I think it probably will.
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I think like the Bible says that if we don’t praise him, even the rocks will cry out.
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Like, are we big enough to get in the way of God’s promises coming to pass?
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I don’t think we are.
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So why do we pray?
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Why should you and I pray for the things that we think God has promised to us?
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Why should we pray?
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Here’s why I think we should pray.
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Does my prayer change God’s promises one way or the other?
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No, it does not.
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But can I change the timeline with which I see the promise?
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I believe I can.
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When I pray for God’s kingdom to come,
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I think I’m quickening the pace at which we see his coming.
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We see this in the book of Daniel.
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When he starts praying, there is spiritual warfare going on.
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And the angel comes and he says,
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from the day you started praying and fasting, we were coming.
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But it took all these days for us to get to you because we were powered by your prayers.
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It’s a slight paraphrase, but that’s essentially what the angel says to Daniel.
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What he’s saying is the promise is available.
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The pace is optional.
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The pace at which you’re going to step into the promises of God is often connected to how we pray.
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Anyone with me this morning?
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I want to see the breakthrough.
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I think God invites us in to quicken the pace.
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He invites us in to see his kingdom advance.
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If our prayers made no difference,
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if there was no quickening of the pace, why pray?
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When you pray, things happen, friends.
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When you pray, you quicken the pace.
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Let me give you an example.
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When my daughter on a Thursday asks me
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if she can have any chocolate
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and I tell her she can have some on the weekend,
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it really depends how fickle I’m feeling
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because then she’ll do this thing she rolls out for me
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she goes no please no please please no please please no please please
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no please please and it depends how persistent she is
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I just got to be parent fails maybe I know
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but occasionally if I’m feeling like oh fine
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it’s gonna did it change the promise no but it quickened the pace
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the promise is there it’s ready and available
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Some of us, we’re outside. It’s raining.
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How much do you want to get on the inside of the promise?
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Sometimes God invites us to draw us near and close.
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And this journey of supplication is not because He wants to punish us.
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He’s angry at us. He’s distant from us.
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It’s because in supplication, we come to really understand the heart of God.
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It’s when you have this heart stirring within you,
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that as you supplicate, you start to realize,
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No, no, no. He really wants to break through for me.
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No, I start to see him differently.
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And I want to show you from the first part of the Bible, the Old Testament,
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someone who prays this kind of prayer in a powerful way.
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And I want to just show you from the first chapter of Nehemiah,
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how he prays and builds a case before God in prayer to see breakthrough.
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And here’s my encouragement to you.
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As a church, we’re praying through till Wednesday.
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We’re praying and fasting.
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If you want to jump in those days, I’d encourage you to do it.
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And here’s how I want you to pray.
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I want you to build a case before God.
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That whatever your circles that you’re drawing, that you’re going to build a case before God.
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So are you ready to read the Bible with me this morning?
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Nehemiah chapter 1.
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And we’re going to start off, I think, from verse 3 and 4.
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It says this.
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Nehemiah, just context.
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He’s here in a time when the people of God, the Israelites, were in exile.
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And he hears about the walls of Jerusalem have been broken down.
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And it’s a promise that God has that they’re going to protect the people of God.
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And he is heartbroken.
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So it says this, verse 3.
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They said to me, those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace.
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The walls of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates have been burned with fire.
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When I heard these things, I sat down and wept.
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For some days I mourned, fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven.
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I mourned, fasted, and wept.
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I love that the posture here as we’re in this time of prayer and fasting is that he chooses to pray and fast.
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But I’ve talked a little bit about it.
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I’m just going to move some slides around for you guys at the back.
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But I just want us to reflect on why pray in this kind of way.
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Nehemiah is heartbroken.
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Crisis has hit.
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And this is not a personal crisis, though it feels personal.
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This is a crisis about the promise of God.
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This is a crisis about his people.
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And I had this thought as I was preparing.
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The crisis will lead you to worry or to supplication.
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You just throw that one up for me, team of the back.
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The crisis will lead you to worry or to prayer or to supplication.
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And so let me just expand on that for a moment.
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Worry projects the worst case scenario into your future.
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That when crisis hits your life, some of you know this,
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You’re figuring out maybe you lost your income.
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Or maybe your income was reduced.
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Or maybe someone saw in your life some things that they didn’t like and you lost a relationship.
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You lost a friendship.
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Maybe something happened to you.
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Crisis hit your life and it will lead you to worry.
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And what worry does is you start to project forward the worst case scenario.
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It’s funny, isn’t it?
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we rarely project the best case scenario in crisis.
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Crisis hits our life.
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It’s like, how much better could this get?
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It’s often time we project worry.
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We project our anxieties into the future.
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But supplication, this type of prayer,
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is something different.
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Supplication is motivated by a grieving spirit
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and an unshakable confidence.
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Supplication is motivated by a grieving spirit and an unshakable confidence.
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It’s not ignoring the reality of the situation.
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It’s not ignoring my need for breakthrough.
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It’s not even ignoring that I believe that often, can I say it this way?
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I think, and we’ll come on to this with Nehemiah,
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but I think some of us, we’re grieving some things
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because we felt God promised them to us in the first place and we haven’t seen it.
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Oftentimes, as Christians, we don’t grieve things when we don’t.
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We grieve because it didn’t hit our expectation.
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We’re disappointed because we didn’t see God come through in the way.
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And so we feel those things.
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But supplication, prayer, instead of turning to worry,
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we turn and we say, God, this is how I’m feeling.
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But I have an unshakable confidence that your promise is still true.
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I don’t now doubt your promise because I’m grieving.
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I still trust in your
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I still have an unshakable confidence
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about who you are
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I still have an unshakable confidence about
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your ability to come through for me
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I’ve just got to tell you I’m going to pray some prayers
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just now and they’re going to be a little bit sad
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I’m going to grieve
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as I pray but I’m going to have an unshakable
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confidence so it’s going to compel me
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to pray with greater emotion
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and urgency
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I’ve seen people supplicate pray
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in a way and tears are rolling down their face because they haven’t seen the promise yet but they
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know that God’s going to make it happen. Those are powerful prayers friends. That takes you from
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praying in a way without expectation to praying with such confidence that God’s going to come
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through and I’m stirred and emotional about the fact that he hasn’t yet. And that’s what we see
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in Nehemiah’s prayer that he prays just now.
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Let’s read Nehemiah 1 verse 5 to 11.
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He says,
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Then I said, Lord, the God of heaven,
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the great and awesome God,
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who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him
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and keep his commandments.
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Let your ear be attentive and your eyes open
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to hear the prayer your servant is praying
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before you day and night for your servants,
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the people of Israel.
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confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s family, have committed against you.
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We have acted very wickedly towards you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees, and laws you gave
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your servant Moses. Remember the instruction you gave your servant, saying, if you are unfaithful,
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I will scatter you among the nations. But if you return to me and obey my commands, then even
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your exiled people at the farthest horizon. I will gather them from there and bring them to a place
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I have chosen as a dwelling for my name. They are your servants and your people whom you redeemed by
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your great strength and your mighty hand. Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this
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your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant
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success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man. I was cut bearer to the king. So
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Nehemiah prays this prayer and what I want to just break down for you now is four ways that
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Nehemiah presented a case before God in prayer and I believe these are ways that you and I can do the
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same thing so that we can pray to see breakthrough. You with me? Let me give you the first way
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that we’re going to pray and present a case before God.
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The first thing that Nehemiah prays here is a prayer,
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and this is the prayer.
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It’s basically, God, this is who you are.
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That’s the first thing he prays.
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This is who you are.
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Not really reminding God of who he is,
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but reminding himself of who God is.
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Let’s just read that again in Nehemiah 1 verse 5.
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It says,
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it says this Nehemiah 1 verse 5
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then I said Lord the God of heaven
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the great and awesome God
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who keeps his covenant of love
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with those who love him
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and keep his commandments
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the first way that Nehemiah approaches God
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is to say God I remember who you are
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I remember who you are
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some of us we struggle to pray big prayers
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because we forget how big our God is
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in a moment where you need to see breakthrough sometimes we imagine God to be too small we limit
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our possibilities to how we can imagine seeing things change and so so we’re praying to a God
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who is far smaller than the reality of who he is it’s an issue of imagination it’s also primarily
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an issue of theology and doctrine but it’s also an issue of imagination we we picture God to only
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be able to work within the confines that we see today? We’ve seen, Meg and I, we’ve seen God provide
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in miraculous ways many times in our life, and none of them we could have imagined. None of them
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we could have, if we sat down with a planning document, we say, how are we going to make this
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happen? None of these ideas would have been the ways that God had. But God had a better plan, a
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different plan. Sometimes a plan that drew us into more faith. Oftentimes a plan that produced more
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trust in our hearts. But we needed to imagine to see who he was. And some of us, we jump straight
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to God, I need breakthrough. But we forget to just consider who is the God I’m praying to?
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How big is he? How powerful? Let me just remind you, friends, when you pray,
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You prayed to the same God, the book of Exodus says,
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that blew his nostrils and the Red Sea parted.
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One of my favorite verses in the Bible,
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because it feels so silly.
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The Lord’s just there, Moses is freaking out.
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How do we get part?
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The Egyptians are there, God, you told me to do this
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and I’ve got a million people that you told me to take care of.
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What are we gonna do?
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And the Lord’s just like, oh, you know,
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it’s like, he’s not afraid of your crisis.
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He’s not concerned about your current anxieties.
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He’s not worried about your worry.
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He blew His nose and the Red Sea parted.
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He spoke and creation obeyed Him and came into existence.
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And the problem is when we miss His bigness,
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then we fear the things of the world, but we do not fear God.
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And when we have the fear of the Lord in our hearts,
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we come before Him.
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Because sometimes when I talk in a way,
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It’s like sometimes I’ll teach and I’ll say,
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the book of Lamentations,
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you’ve got to be able to lament before God.
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Or if you’re coming to supplicate,
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you’ve got to be able to bring your emotions to God.
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And that is all true.
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But the problem is if we do not first understand who He is,
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then sometimes we can approach God in an irreverent way.
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And we come to God and we start,
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I’ve even heard people pray and demand that God does things.
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Say, hey, are you sure you want to be?
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playing those games.
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Because if we understand the authority we have in Jesus,
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sometimes we misunderstand where that authority comes from.
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So when we pray,
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and you’re building a case in prayer before God,
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please first come and remind yourself who He is.
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He is powerful.
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He has all authority.
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He is sovereign, meaning He is in charge.
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That He holds together creation.
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and so when you pray and you’re in crisis yeah sure you could worry or you could come before
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the king of glory and say lord i’ll be honest i’m terrified just now but here’s the thing
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i’m excited to see you come through i’m ready i’m posturing myself for a breakthrough i’m i’m
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grieving now but i still have an unshakable confidence second thing nehemiah does
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is Nehemiah prays a simple prayer
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that some of us need to pray today.
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And it’s this, I repent.
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I repent.
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Repentance is this word meaning I’m changing direction.
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We were going one way and we need to go another.
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Nehemiah 1 verse 6, the second part of 6 through to 7.
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It says, let your ear be attentive
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and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servant,
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Your servant is praying before you day and night, the people of Israel.
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And then he says this,
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I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s family, have committed against you.
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We have acted very wickedly towards you.
29:29
We have not obeyed the commands, decrees, and laws you gave your servant Moses.
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I think part of building a case before God in prayer for breakthrough is also taking ownership.
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Some of us, we need breakthrough in our finances
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and it’s because you got yourself in a financial mess.
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And it’s not just the case of saying,
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I need to do, see, we do this,
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let me just speak on finances for a moment.
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We dig ourselves into a hole
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and then instead of repenting,
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owning it and praying,
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we think the same person who dug themselves this hole
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is gonna be able to dig themselves out of it.
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You, if your wisdom got you into this mess,
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maybe a wiser one can get you out.
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We need to repent.
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Repentance is not a dangerous word.
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It’s not a condemnationary word.
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It is a life-giving word.
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It’s a word that says, God, I’m taking ownership.
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Again, I love it.
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Nehemiah didn’t just put it on the nation.
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I confess the sins we Israelites,
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including myself and my father’s family,
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have committed against you. I’ve got to take ownership. Now some of us, let me just pause for
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a second. Some of you, you are in a mess and it’s not because of anything you did to you, it’s something
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someone else did to you. And let me just be clear, I’m not talking to you when it comes to repentance.
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It may be that you need to go on a journey of healing and in time forgiveness, but not repentance.
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But for those of us who manage to get ourselves into the crisis that we’re in,
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that we want to see breakthrough within,
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owning it in prayer is a valuable thing.
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Because it says, Lord, when you bring me through this one,
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I need to learn to live differently.
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I don’t want to keep doing the same things the same way.
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I want to change.
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And so I’m owning this today.
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And I’m sorry, God.
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And I confess my sin.
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sin of rebellion, someone else, you know, sometimes someone will come and speak some wisdom in your
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life and you ignore it and then you find yourself in a crisis and you look back and go, man,
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maybe the Lord sent that person to come and speak a life into this situation. Repent. Number three,
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the third thing, this is probably my favorite one and one of the prayers I’ve prayed so many times
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in my life and it’s this prayer this is the building a case before God we say this this
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was not my idea this was not my idea Nehemiah 1 verse 8 to 9 says remember the instruction you
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gave your servant Moses saying if you are unfaithful I will scatter you among the nations
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but if you return to me and obey my commands,
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then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon,
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I will gather them from there
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and bring them to the place I’ve chosen
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as a dwelling for my name.
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What’s Nehemiah saying?
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He’s saying, God, I just want to remind you
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of what you said to Moses.
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I want to remind you, what’s he saying?
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This wasn’t my idea.
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You gathering us, this was not my idea.
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The walls of Jerusalem, that was not my idea.
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This was your idea.
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Let me talk as a pastor for a moment.
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I’ve had many times in many church gatherings where I’ve sat there and gone,
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Lord, this was not my idea.
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This is on you to build this house.
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This was not my idea.
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I didn’t come up with the idea of the church.
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I didn’t come up with the idea of us planting a church.
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Frankly, Lord, I didn’t even come up with the idea of you moving two Brits from the UK to Cape Town to pastor a church.
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None of this was my idea.
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this is on you. If it was not my idea, it is not my responsibility to deliver on it.
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If it was not my idea, it is his burden to carry, not mine. Can I show you guys a picture? Just
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again, I got sent by our associate pastor, Hunty. He sent me a picture last night that I wanted to
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show you. You just throw that picture up on the screen, Sam. Some of you will struggle to see it,
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But I’ll explain it to you.
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You can see this is a message that Hanti was sharing.
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I’m not 100% sure.
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I think it was about three years ago.
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And he sent me this.
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And what you can see in the picture is him preaching.
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And there are two people in the service.
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Those two people are me and my wife Meg.
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The two pastors.
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This is two people.
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And so this was us in a church service on a Sunday morning about three years ago.
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And now I’m sure if you scanned over a little bit, you might see a few more people.
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This was not the extent or size of our church three years ago.
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We had amazing times. God moved in power.
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It was incredible.
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We would often, the plant team, as they planted the church,
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within about a year, they had about 80 people gathering.
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COVID hit and then brought in some rookie pastors.
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And Meg and I managed to take down the size of the church by a few people.
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And so we had about two, three years of building church.
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And I don’t know if you can see my head is down praying.
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And I think I was praying something like, Lord, this was not my idea.
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This was not my idea.
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Lord, I think you want us to reach more people with your love.
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And so it’s on you.
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The Bible says,
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The Lord does not build his house.
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Those who labor, labor in vain.
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And so we’re sat here today on a Sunday in our first service
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where maybe there’s going to be 140 odd people with kids.
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We’re probably going to see about another 100, 110 people.
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in the second service that we have today.
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Now, this is not the extent of the vision in our hearts.
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We’re believing for more.
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But I share this to say that maybe in your life,
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in a certain area of your life,
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let’s just bring the picture back up for a moment, Sam.
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Maybe for a certain area of your life,
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this is how the big dream feels just now.
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Or maybe in your finances,
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you’re believing for fullness and it feels a little empty.
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And you’re in the middle of the month
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and you’ve got seven rand left and you’re saying,
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Lord, I’m believing for the promise.
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I’m stood out in the rain today
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and I’m believing for breakthrough.
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But the health of my finances, this was not my idea.
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I believe it was yours.
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Lord, the restoration of the relationship,
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even though I was praying for it this week
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and then I had an even worse argument
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in the middle of prayer and fasting, believing for restoration.
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but God I just want to tell you something
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this was not my idea
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this was your idea
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and this is where you start to pray some of these prayers
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and maybe you take it outside of yourself
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because I’ve had times where I have wept
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as I’ve thought about a lost generation
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that is giving itself over to lust and sin and darkness
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when the kingdom of God is ready to advance into their lives
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and I’ve supplicated and I’ve prayed and I’ve wept
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and I’ve said, Lord, what are we going to do here?
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And I believe as I’m praying, I’m saying, God, this is in my heart,
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but this was not my idea.
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This is your idea.
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God, you’ve got to do something.
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And prayers of supplication, they come from a grieving spirit,
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but also an unshakable confidence.
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They say, God, I’m not seeing it now, but I believe I’m going to.
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I’m going to keep knocking, even though I’m not seeing it yet.
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You will not deter me from knocking.
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I’m going to be, if you stick around long enough,
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you’re going to see me for the next 60 years of my life.
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And guess what I’m going to do?
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I’m just keep knocking.
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I’m just going to keep knocking
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because there’s more people who need the love of Jesus.
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I was sharing with our team this morning.
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I was talking to one of my friends.
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They were talking about a particular ministry area of our church earlier in the year.
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We’ve really got to see this work this year.
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We’ve really got to see this part.
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I really think we need to see that work in a great way this year.
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And as he was saying it, I thought, I want to see it work, but we don’t have to.
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Because I’m going to be here for the next 34 years trying to make this thing work.
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So if it doesn’t happen this year, it’s going to happen next year.
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And if it doesn’t happen next year, it’s going to happen a year after.
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We’re going to figure it.
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Because he’ll build his house.
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And I’m just going to be a part of it.
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Just keep knocking.
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If you’re starting there today,
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whatever area that is for your life,
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just keep knocking.
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Final thing that Nehemiah says,
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final type of prayer that I want to show you,
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is he prays a prayer.
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And I’d say it this way.
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I want to encourage you to be specific.
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Or another way of saying it in this series
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would be to say, draw a circle.
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Nehemiah 1 verse 11, it says,
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Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant
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and to the prayer of your servant to delight in revering your name.
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And this is where he’s specific.
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Give your servant success today, not tomorrow, today,
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by granting him favor in the presence of this man, the king.
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Lord, I need favor as I go and talk to this man today.
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I’m going to have the courage to do it.
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I was talking with a friend this week in the Circle Makers series
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and she’d drawn out a bunch of circles
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and written out specific things
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she was praying for this week in circles
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so that she could be specific.
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I want to encourage you this week,
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if you want to see breakthrough, be specific.
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I’ve reflected recently.
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Meg, I’ve heard a couple of times preach on the idea,
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the concept of healing,
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that God wants to heal people physically.
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And she would say oftentimes as Christians,
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we’ll pray things like,
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If somebody’s healing, Lord, we pray for healing today.
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But if not healing, we pray for peace for this person.
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And if not peace, we pray for comfort.
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And she would say, which one?
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The Lord’s up there like, do you want the healing?
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Do you want the peace?
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Do you want the comfort?
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Like which one?
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Which do you want?
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Be specific.
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What are you believing for breakthrough?
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And then guess what?
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Keep knocking.
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Don’t settle.
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Don’t sit in the rain when the promise is inside.
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saying, Lord, if you don’t open the door,
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I’m coming through the roof.
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If the roof’s closed, I’m going through the window.
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I’m getting to the promise.
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I believe you want to come through.
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I’m drawing near.
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And that’s the key.
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We’re drawing near.
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We’re drawing near.
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And as you draw nearer, you go, oh, look at his heart.
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Look at how good he is.
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Look at how wonderful Jesus is.
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And we draw nearer to him.
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And that’s my prayer for us as a church in this time,
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that you would draw nearer to Jesus,
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that you would find life in Jesus.
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Amen.
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Amen.
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And I want to pray for us as we close this message today.
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Let me pray for us as a church family.
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Would you close your eyes with me, Lord Jesus?
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I thank you that you’re drawing us near.
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God, that we are, we have an invitation from you today.
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We’re going to find life in you, that you are the God of the breakthrough.
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God, that you have the fullness of life for us, Jesus.
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And we want to step into it.
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Every person, Lord, believing for breakthrough, I pray,
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that you draw them nearer through prayers of supplication this week,
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building a case before you in prayer,
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that we would see who you are, that we would repent, own the things.
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God, that we would remind ourselves that it is on you to do it,
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and that we would be specific in our prayers.
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God, take us on that journey, I pray.
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Legenda Adriana Zanotto