Hey guys, what an honor it is to be with you all.
For those that don't know me, I'm Pritt from Pritt and Tea,
your Hemel site pastors and and my wife Tea.
She's actually preaching at Hemel today and the team are all
enjoying a week off. Me being there causing trouble
and I get to cause trouble for you guys.
Yay. Can I just ask, is anyone here
for the first time today, anyone here has a few hands up?
Just want to say like, yeah, let's, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
You guys, you're so welcome. It's so great.
And if it's anyone else, it's so great to have you here.
And you've just heard you've joined us in a really unique
moment. And as as the guys said, we've
recently said goodbye to our senior pastors, Mark and Steph,
and we're welcoming new senior pastors, Chuck and Taron, which
we're really excited about in January.
So right now you've joined us slap bang in the middle of a
series, essentially, where we're looking at what are we doing
this time in between right? And and that our posture as a
church wouldn't just be passive, but it would be prayerful.
So I encourage you, if you haven't seen all the talks, do
catch up on YouTube. But by way of summary, Claire
kicks us off a few weeks back with a spade.
Who remembers the spade? I remember the spade.
Yeah. And.
And she encouraged us to dig deep wells of prayer, you know,
to contend in preparation for what's coming next.
And then the wonderful Richard with his gorgeous pink shirt.
Who remembers the pink shirt? It was lovely.
Wow. He spoke to us about faith in
the waiting. And he, he told us the story of
those people that were praying for rain.
And there was one girl who who brought an umbrella and the And
the the challenge was, do we expect God to answer our
prayers? And then Claire picked up the
bat. And again, she talked to us
about fasting, our favorite topic.
You know that we don't just give something up, we give something
up to feast on something else. And she launched a weekly
invitation for us to fast every Wednesday and pray together with
a, with a specific prayer focus each week.
And, and this week I think we've got a, a slide for it.
So feel free to take a picture. This week.
The, the focus is evangelism. So for many people to come to
know Jesus for the first time and for all those that are doing
alpha in this season. So that's our focus for this
week. And don't forget space online on
a Wednesday and who's who's checked out space online?
Any, anyone check that out? Hasn't it just been fantastic as
if, I mean, our worship pastors, not here, said Tiago's here.
I know some of the team who've been part of that are here, but
haven't they just been great? Like it's just been a wonderful,
wonderful space. Me.
And then and then last week, Jenna encouraged us to pray
Kingdom prayers. You know, that there's an order
even in the Lord's Prayer. You know, it's important to pray
for our own needs, like our daily breads.
Before we pray for Our Daily Bread, we pray your Kingdom
come. So what a journey it's been.
Who's ready for more? Yeah, let's go, let's go.
I mean, today we're going to look at the topic of inter
session, standing in the gap between heaven and earth, and
prayer for others. And I, I, I, I do joke, but I
promise I've tried to make this short because we're going to,
we're going to, we're going to try and race through 4 things I
think the Lord is saying to us about intercession.
And then I'd love to spend some time actually doing it together.
Oh, have fun. OK, but before we dive in, shall
we start? I understand some of the basics.
Right? So what is intercession?
Why do we do it? OK, so intercession in simple
terms is to intervene. Yeah, but to go in between or on
behalf of somebody else, right, to to kind of mediate if you if
you like, it's kind of like spiritual mediation.
Yeah. So it's to stand in the gap on
someone else's behalf. Or in other words, you know, if
we have prayers of petition, which is, you know, praying God,
I need this, I need this, I need this prayer of intercession is,
is praying for others or other situations.
And at this point, you might ask, well, what's the point?
Doesn't God know better than me what everyone else needs?
Oh, well, Jenna talked about this last week.
You know, something happens in the spiritual realm and we pray
our prayers make a difference. Amen.
You know, the Bible says we
don't fight against flesh and blood, against the spiritual
forces of evil. So that is to say that there is
an enemy and he wants to reap destruction on the body of
Christ. I've been studying the book of
Ezekiel recently, all books. It's heavy.
It's kind of strange. And but we see moments where
God's heart and his character shine through.
And one such moment is Ezekiel chapter 22, verse 30.
I think we have it. It says.
And I sought for a man among them who should build up the
wall and stand in the breach before me for the land, but I
should not destroy it. But I found.
No church I. Pray with my whole heart that
God would never say this about us.
Yeah, but instead he would find a church who run, stand in the
gap and intercede for our towns, our nation, for the world.
You know, we intercede because we recognise our prayers matter.
We intercede because God is looking for those who will stand
in the gap, right? Those big Kingdom prayers with
expectation. Now dig wells, contend for God's
Kingdom to come in our time in our land.
Amen, Amen. Right, there we go.
So what is God saying to us? Let's race through these.
All right? So number one, we pray based on
God's character. So as we go through this, I've
got 2 moments of intercession in the Bible and I believe the Lord
wants to speak to us free. So for the first, let's turn to
Genesis 1822 to 26. And when we're going to meet
Abraham, if you, if you don't know who Abraham is, he's, he's
essentially, he's a friend of God and God's talking to him
about God's judgement over the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.
And it says this in verse 22. It says So.
The men turned from there and went towards Sodom, but Abraham
stood still before the Lord. Then Abraham drew near and said,
Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?
Suppose there are 50 righteous within the city, will you then
sweep away the place, and not spare it for the 50 righteous
who were in it? Or be it from you to do such a
thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that
the righteous fairer is the wicked?
Far be that from you? Shall not the judge of all the
earth do what is and the Lord said, if I find at Sodom 50
righteous in the city, I'll spare the whole place for their
sake. We pray you see how Abraham
prays based on God's character. You know, you are a just, he
says you're just or you're not just do something that is just,
you know, you need to know that God is good.
And there's a danger sometimes when we pray, particularly in a
season like this, but we stay in a place of, of maintenance, like
just pray, Oh, I need this. And we make this like wish
lists, things we want to pray for, and we take it to God and
we think because he's all powerful and because he's all
loving and he's and he's good, we think that he'll oblige to
whatever it is we want. And we're asking for,
particularly if we're asking for good things.
But I believe that the challenge for us is that God is calling us
to start our intercession by listening.
You know, intercession isn't about God saying Amen to our
will. It's about us saying Amen to
God's will. You know, we open our hearts and
our lives to hear the will of God and we say, Amen.
So we must take the time when we come before him in prayer and
listen to him. What's God saying over these
things? And we pray based on His
goodness, based on His character.
Number one, We pray based on His character.
And then #2 we pray, we must know who we're praying to.
OK, so as we if we read on this this section, it's a bit funny
how Abraham starts talking to God.
Like verse 27, he says, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord.
I who am but dust and ashes like find a weird way to talk to
someone. And then verse 30, he says, Oh,
let them Lord not be angry and I will speak.
And verse 32 is like, oh, let the Lord not be angry and I will
speak again. But this once some of you wish
your kids spoke to you like that.
By the way, I'm reading this and I'm like Abraham, dude, but
relax. Don't you know that God is like
so kind and so loving He's good that you're speaking to him like
you're afraid of him. Something church, we must learn
to recapture a holy fear. You know, the fear of the Lord
is an uncomfortable topic because we associate fear with
negative things, right? But let me say, this fear can
lead us into good things, right? It's a, it's a fear of being hit
by a car. That means I don't just walk out
into the middle of the road. And it's a fear of it's a
healthy fear of being hospitalized.
But I don't eat peanut. I'm allergic.
I'm heavily allergic to peanuts. If you have a peanut, please
take it outside. Leviticus 10/3 says among those
who are near me, I will be sanctified.
Or in other translations it says I must be regarded as holy.
You know, if we want his presence must Revere him church
and treat him as holy and set apart as above us.
And, and I think this is so, so important for us in this time,
but particularly when it comes to intercession, because knowing
how awesome and powerful God is leads to expectation, but
expectation must come with reverence.
All right, Let me illustrate this, OK, When I go to
McDonald's, I have no reverence, all right, Some of you are like
what? I'm a KFC boy, all right, But I
I have no reverence towards McDonald's.
I have No Fear of McDonald's. But I have expectation.
Yeah, I expect that when I walk into McDonald's, place my order,
and then within within moments, all right, I'm going to be
walking back out with a Big Mac in my hand, maybe a Coke.
All right. And when that doesn't happen,
when it doesn't happen immediately, yeah, what happens?
I'm annoyed. I'm like, what is this?
And then I probably give up and go somewhere else.
Probably KFC should have gone there in the.
First place you know. So many people do this with God.
Yeah, like I, I pray. And it doesn't happen
immediately because there's expectation by reverence.
We give up, go somewhere else when we have expectation, with
reverence, we recognise that God's ways are higher beyond our
understanding. And so our response is to keep
praying, to keep hoping, keep pressing in and pressing on and
ultimately to surrender to his goodness and to his wisdom that
is higher than our own. You know, Jenna said last week,
there's freedom in the fact that the outcome of our prayers are
not our responsibility. There's there's freedom in that,
you know, Two Chronicles 714 says, if my people who are
called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my
face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from
heaven and will forgive their sin, heal their land.
When we intercede. We must come before God in
humility. You know, your morality, your
wisdom and your power to affect any situation in your life is
not greater than God's. Yeah, you know, God.
God says to Job in in Job 38 something that I I just think no
one else can say this, right? He says, where were you when I
laid the foundations of the earth?
Like who else in your life can ask you that question?
Like who else? No one, right?
God is the only one. If you if for a moment you think
your morality or your power is higher than God's, which many
people on this world do that, you're wrong.
You're wrong, right? You know our God is not a
passive God. He is not a timid God.
Our God has conquered death, hell, and the grave.
He's the King over Angel armies. You know, He's the author of
salvation, the great and mighty conqueror.
He spoke the entire cosmos into being.
That is who we're coming before. That's who we're coming before
when we pray. So pray with boldness, pray with
courage, and pray with humility and with reverence.
Amen. OK, .3, look at this.
We are racing through, aren't we?
We're going to head to the next stop, which is in Acts 12.
And .3, is this all right? Intercession is for all of us to
do together. OK, so we're in Acts 12.
The church is being persecuted hard.
All right? And James from James, you know,
James and John. James from James and John.
He's just been killed by King Herod.
And we read that his execution pleased the people.
So Herod was out for blood, right?
And specifically the blood of people who followed Jesus.
And his next target was Peter. So he's arrested Peter and he's
put him in the garden. There's four squads of soldiers
surrounding Peter, right? Like it's no escape.
And then we read in Acts 12 verse 5, it says, so Peter was
kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God
by the church. Earnest prayer was made by the
church. And what happens next is insane,
right? Because you can read this, you
can read this on. But basically the night before
Peter was to be publicly executed, He's miraculously,
it's like it's, you know, it's like the greatest escape film
you'll ever read, right? It, it's insane.
Angels come, they set him free. They like lead him away.
He thinks it's a vision. He doesn't even realise it's
real. OK, it's an incredible story.
And then he escapes to where the disciples are, right?
And he, he knocks on the door. And this is like the dead of
night by the way. He knocks on the door.
And what are they doing? They're on their knees praying.
You know, the early church modelled the the right response
to persecution beautifully. It's not to launch a rant on
social media, but it's to meet together and pray together.
Can I be honest with my own heart and some repentance I've
had to do with the Lord in the last few weeks?
You see, I, I am, I found myself just scrolling.
I've found in recent weeks, I found myself just scrolling,
scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, just getting so, so angry like
the world is, is it just seems so dark right now.
Should be. I'm just, that's the way I see
it, being honest. I, I, I, I've actually had to
delete my Instagram app all together.
I just found myself getting so angry and frustrated and
hopeless. But my response to do this, to
just scroll was wrong. You know, let's do less social
media, more spiritual mediation. Yeah, I actually wrote in my
notes, swing and a miss. It happens.
So thank you for the encouragement.
But guys like I love that. It must have been like the dead
of nights. And yet the church are still
there, gathered together, praying, contending.
I love my sleep. I love my sleep, right?
It's costly. My intercession can be costly,
but it's corporate, all right? We do it together.
And I want to say this like it's this isn't something reserved
for the prayer warriors, all right?
This is, this is for all of us. You know, your prayers matter,
your intercession matters. Your participation in this
matters. Don't leave it for someone else.
This is for all of us. Don't let this moment pass us
by. OK, .4.
I'm just going to rewind again to verse 5 because it doesn't
just say prayer was made, right, It says earnest prayer was made.
I mean, other translations it might say, you know, prayer was
made fervently. The Greek word here for Ernest
or fervently is ektenos. Everyone say ektenos, right?
This is a really important point for us.
I feel this point. I think this is really important
for US .4 is this we pray ektenos.
OK, so this is an adverb. It's a word picture.
It literally, it's like a word picture of a stretching,
stretching your arm out, no slack, like, like a stretching
out as hard as you can, right? There's no give maximum
potential. It's intense.
It's wholehearted. I mean, if you want an idea of
what this might look like in the context of prayer, I can tell
you that the same root word, it's the same word is used in
Luke 2244 when Jesus is praying in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Right, so it says there and in and being in agony, he prayed
more earnestly. So the word is actually
eternestron, but it's just another form of the word that
essentially means more eternos. All right, so and being in
agony, he prayed more eternos. And his sweat became like great
drops of blood falling to the ground.
Like, this is what praying eternos looks like, guys.
I'm not asking you to sweat drops of flood.
I believe that God is looking for people to stand in the gap,
not just to go through the motions of prayer, not just
because this is the thing we're talking about as a church, but
people who will pray eternos wholehearted.
And if we want to pray eternos, we have to eradicate apathy from
our hearts. You know that like lazy,
passive, not really caring. Can I please hear my heart?
Because I'm not trying to just March in here and be and accuse
you all of such a terrible thing.
But look, I know, I know from my own heart and my own life.
If I'm not intentional and aware of this, it can take root and
then just spread across several areas of my life.
So if this is, if I'm the only one, please humour me for 5
minutes. But I'm going to go through this
because I just, and I just love you to just just really
carefully listen to the Spirit. Just be open and ask, look,
Lord, does this take a root in my life anywhere?
Because the apathy says it's not the end of the world if I miss
the first few minutes of worship.
I need my coffee. Etanos says, Look, I know I'm
late for everything, but not this, not this.
This is too important because God deserves my worship.
So I make sure that I'm here and ready to worship. 9:30 Apathy
says it doesn't matter if I put my hand up to stand and watch
this month because you know someone else would do it.
Externos says I care about this family so much that if even if,
even if no one else is praying, I'm going to pray.
Apathy says well, I didn't see anyone on the parking team at
the gate today, I should really do something about that.
Externos says I'll do something about that, right?
It takes a decision, an intentional act to do something
external. So, in fact, all right, who
remembers that week? If you were here in the summer,
remember there was that one week when there was Rd.
Works just outside. And then we were all trying to
get home and we were just stuck in a massive traffic jam all the
way back, back here for half an hour.
And then it started moving and we all got to the front.
I don't know if they're in the room today, but but then you got
to the front and we saw Sir John and Dame Penny Griggs standing
at the, you know, they'd got out of their car and they were like
coordinating traffic, man. You know, apathy says they
should put someone out of here to direct the traffic.
It makes such a difference. External says, well, we'll do it
then. Look, I picked these examples
just to illustrate. I know it's, it's often more
complicated than that. So I'm not trying to not trying
to make anyone feel guilty or offend anyone, but but but this
is a heart posture. You know, the seeds that we
water with our actions are the seeds that take root and grow.
So my encouragement is let's water eternos in all areas of
our life. You know, and we must be open to
the idea that prayer can change us and prayer changes us.
I love the story of Azalea. I mean, it started with a prayer
meeting, right? A group of believers choosing to
pray about vulnerable women in this on the street.
And they could have prayed with apathy.
Oh, you know, maybe God will do something, maybe he won't.
But I've done my bit. I've said a couple of prayers.
But now they prayed intentionally and Exynos and
their prayer moved them into action.
You know, they took their own time, energy and resources to
sacrificially provide spaces for the women to be safe and to know
their love and to pray with them.
And now they've worked with over 500 survivors.
Sexual abuse and they're changing lives and they're
changing their community because a group of believers gathered
together and prayed at Tennos Church.
Let me ask you this, if we as a church gathered together and
prayed at Tennos, how many more azaleas might rise up?
You know, what miracles might we see?
So that's our four encouragements.
We pray based on God's character.
Let's know who we pray into and come before him with humility.
Intercession is for all of us to do together.
Church, pray Ektenos. So in a moment, we're going to
move into a time of intercession.
We're going to do this practically together.
But I just want to speak to a couple of groups in the room
first. All right?
Because I I get it. I get it.
I say we're going to do something practical.
We're going to get up off our seats.
And some of you are like, yeah, come on, I'm ready.
I'm ready. Some of you are not like that.
Some of you are like, oh, my goodness.
OK, it's 1042, right? We'll just keep your head down,
get through this. We'll be out with the doughnut
soon. I get it.
Look, I get it. I get it.
I've been there. But Claire started this series
with the prop. Yeah.
So I've brought off my own. OK.
This I was saying to Richard Frey, this this here was in my
mouth this morning brushing these teeth.
OK, can I over share a little bit more than I just have?
I hate brushing my teeth. Anyone else?
Like it's so boring. It's thank you.
Like can we just be honest? Who hates brushing their teeth?
It's so boring. And you've got to just do it all
the time. All the time, honestly, like
it's tedious. I've spent so much time doing
this, so much time in my life. Anyway, see you that now.
And yeah, do you know this activity has changed my reality,
OK, But by example, OK, as I've alluded to earlier, I'm, I'm
married and I'm married to, if I say so, a very beautiful lady.
Like, she is stunning. And back when I was an annoying
teenager and I was trying to impress her.
Can I tell you if I didn't do this regularly?
Genuinely right. If I didn't do this regularly, I
I I mean, I don't know. The Lord knows his wisdom is
greater than mine, but I don't think we'd be married right now.
Yeah, that's fair. That is that fair?
Yeah. This is a pretty significant
part of my life. I owe to this little thing.
I you know, just because I've. I've used this once a week, I've
I'm joking. I'm joking.
But guys.
But. But guys, genuinely, genuinely,
right. So if we do this a couple of
times a day and it, and it can change our reality, like how
much more can intercession can standing in the gut change our
reality? So, so let, so let me say this
like, if you're sitting there and you're like, Oh, I don't, I,
I don't want to do this. Like you might, you might not
find it exciting. That's, that's fine.
You might not feel like you're any good at intercession.
You might not know what words to say.
You might just feel totally awkward.
But my encouragement is just do it.
Just do it because it will change reality.
And I know there's some of you. Well, I know there's some of
you. It's your first time here.
And look, look, maybe it's your, I don't know, your story.
Maybe it's your first time in, in, in church, you know, maybe
you're here and you're not even sure there is a God.
Can I tell you there is? And he loves you more than you
could ever comprehend. You're so precious to him.
He wants to know you so much so that he's made a way for you to
be here today. And you're not here by accident.
And you should know that this invitation, this opportunity to
stand in the gap and to speak to the living God, that's for you
too. You know, you can do this too.
In fact, you can pray to God and he will listen.
Your prayers matter just as much as anyone else's.
OK, I'll be ready. So here's here's how we're going
to do this. All right, in a moment, I'm
going to ask you to stand if you're able.
And what we're going to do is we're just going to huddle up
with with in small groups of people around you.
I'd say groups of, say, 4 to 6 is probably the ideal size.
Yeah. Tioga, if you want to.
Thank you. But so 4 to 6 is ideal, but
let's just make sure everyone's in a group and then on screen
we're going to have a prayer .1 prayer point at a time.
And then as we get to each, I'll tell you the logistics of, of,
of what we're physically going to do and how we're going to do
it. But why don't I invite you now?
Do you want to stand? And let's just get into some
groups. So 4 to 6, but let's just make
sure everyone. So just turn around, huddle up
with people near you. If you don't know each other,
it's a great time to say, hey, my name's Prit.
Or if your name's not Prit, don't say that, obviously.
All right. Are we in groups?
Is there, is there anyone not in
a group? Just stick your hand up if
you're not in a group. Anyone not in a group.
We're all in groups. All right.
Amazing. Amazing.
OK guys, look, part of the reason why I want to do this
practically now together is because I want us, I want us to
have all practised this in a, in a, in an environment like this.
We're all together. It's all nice and safe because I
want us to be confident enough to do this through the week.
OK? So please don't think or let
this moment be the only time we do this this week.
Like I encourage you get familiar with it here.
If this isn't something you do or you've done, be familiar with
it now and then let's do it. Let's do it through the week.
But my encouragement when we approach intercession is to
follow. We're going to do these three
steps. OK.
So number one, we come before God with humility and adoration
and our worship. You know, it's a privilege that
we get to come before him. So let's let's just all
together, just right now OfferUp our praise and our Thanksgiving.
Let's just do that. Outline where you are now.
Just say Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord, thank you, Lord
that you're here. Thank you, Lord, that we have
this privilege to be in your presence, that we can come
before you. Just shout it out wherever you
are. Thank you, Lord.
Thank you Jesus. Thank you, Lord.
You're so kind. Lord.
We worship you, Jesus, we worship you, Lord.
You are greater than us. You are mightier than us, Lord,
and we thank you. We thank You that you lend us
your ear, that you care about what we have to come before you
with Lord Jesus. And as we do that step 2:00 we
we re censor our scattered senses on his presence like his
presence is in the room right now.
So just begin to turn your ears, your eyes, your hearts towards
him and his presence retune into the spirit.
Now we listen His direction. You know, Hebrews 725 says that
Jesus is always interceding for us.
So we ask, Lord, what are you saying?
And then we speak into what the Lord is saying.
We follow His direction and we come into agreement with Him.
And it's helpful to use Scripture as you pray.
So I encourage you to do that. But guys, let's go.
So we're going to listen and then we're going to speak into
what God is saying. We're going to do about two
minutes for each prayer prompts. And the first is this guys,
we're going to pray for our incoming senior pastors, Chuck
and Tarrant, that they would have clarity, vision,
protection, courage, and anything else that you feel led
to pray. And I'd love for you to take
turns within your group. So let's let's pray short
prayers, give people the opportunity.
Like I say, we're just going to do this for two minutes for each
prayer prompt. So one person at a time,
speaking out loud and everyone else unifying and agreeing with
that prayer. So off you go.
The. All right, guys, 30 seconds more
on this one, then we'll move to our second prayer prompt.
All right, for our next prayer prompt, I'd love it as you guys
are now split again into two into into two groups within your
group. So I'm looking for twos and
threes. If you're already in the two and
three, great. And this time we're going to
pray for our church family for unity, humility, spiritual
hunger, anything else as you feel LED And again, short
prayers. So I say in in in twos or
threes, maybe a four if you're in a big group now.
But let's, let's, let's pray for our church family again. 2
minutes. OK, so for our third prayer
front guys, we're going to pray for our community, All right?
We're going to stand in the gap together.
And I'd love us to pray and contend for a revival, for
reconciliation, for renewal. Any other R words that you feel
LED? But this time what I'd love us
to do is to just stand together as one big group.
And I love us just to pray. Just pray out loud.
You know, if you pray in tongues, feel free to do that.
I'm not going to go into that. But if you, if you pray in
tongues, feel free to do that as well.
But guys, let's just let's be loud.
Let's just contend for our community right now in Jesus
name. Let's go Lord.
Thank you, Jesus. Yes, Lord, we pray, We contend
for our community. Lord, we contend for our
community. Lord, we say, we say, come Holy
Spirit, take back this land. Take back this landlord, Jesus,
come and heal our land. Take back this landlord.
Will the light shine through in the darkness, Holy Spirit, Come.
Lord Jesus, we pray for revival in our time, in our in our land.
Come Holy Spirit in Jesus name, guys, I do have a fourth prayer
prompt, but can I encourage you rather we're not going to do the
4th one right now. The 4th is the 4th is to
actually just pray for someone else and intercede for someone
else. So I'd love you.
Maybe, maybe you want to do it after the service.
But if you like your homework or your challenge or invitation's
probably the right word, right? It's to pray with someone else
this week and intercede for them, right?
So you can you can pray for. What's up?
I think we've got the slide actually for our 4th that that,
that people would be obedient. There we go.
Boldness, burden and obedience. So, so find someone and pray for
them this week, maybe after the service, get it done nice and
early. But that's your that's your
challenge. You could you can stay standing,
standing. I'm just going to bring us all
together. I just want to, I just want to
tell one quick story is to bring this all together.
You know, it's 1940 and it's the middle of World War 2, and the
Allied soldiers have been pushed back to the French beach and
there's no hope for them. You know, the Germans are
advancing and there's no hope. And so your King George calls
for a national day of prayer and intercession.
And what happens? Well, there's a storm over the
German Luftwaffe, so all their planes are grounded.
The the German army make a number of tactical errors that
just delay them getting to the beach.
And at the same time there's calm on the English Channel.
And, and, and as millions flocks into churches to pray and
intercede. You know, they prayed at Tennos.
They allowed their prayers to change them.
And a number of civilians, no doubt, who'd been in church and
prayed, decided to take their own boats across the Channel.
335 soldiers were rescued that that day because this nation got
together to intercede. Church, What would happen if we
got together to intercede? All right, so I pray, let's pick
up this mantle. OK, Let's pray, Ektenos, and
let's watch God do his thing. Amen.
Hallelujah, guys.
We we have a wonderful prayer team who meet before the service
and, and they prayed and asked the Lord for some words of
knowledge and, and these are the words as they listened.
These are the words they had repetitive strain injury on the
right wrist. A lady called grace with pain
and upset stomach. Someone with a wound on the
upper body that's not healing. A mum worried about a daughter
with eating disorder. Someone with rheumatoid
rheumatoid arthritis who's given up hope of healing.
Someone with pain in their feet. Someone with psoriasis.
Someone with cluster headaches or migraines.
Someone feeling stuck in life, I can't see a way forwards and
then someone with I'm going to pronounce this wrong with giant
cell arthritis, arthritis. I don't know.
But if, if, if any of those are you or even someone that you
know. And and if you're watching
online, please, please let us know.
So if you're in the room, please come over to to my right, your
left just over there. There'll be a wonderful prayer
team if you pray with you. If you're online, please e-mail
us at prayer at Versailles dot Church.
But you should know that God sees you.
God sees you and he loves you. So keep praying, Keep
contending. Yeah.
Hasn't this been wonderful? I just love the kindness of the
Lord that he, he gives us the invitation to do this together.
So I want to intercede for you all now and I want to pray that
the Lord would bless you, that He would make His face shine
upon you this week. He would lift up his countenance
towards you. He would grant you His perfect,
perfect peace that surpasses all knowledge and all understanding
and everything else on this planet and that you would be
blessed in Jesus name. Amen.